Economist Marc Sumerlin, one of nearly a dozen reported contenders for Federal Reserve chair, said Thursday he'd be interested in the job and believes an aggressive interest rate cut would be appropriate.

Sumerlin, a former senior economist under then-President George W. Bush, said on CNBC that lowering the Fed's key rate would be an easy decision now.

The current yield structure combined with weakness in the labor market and stable inflation "tells us that we could easily do a 50 basis point cut ... without disrupting anything at all. So it seems like pretty much a no-brainer to me." A basis point equals 0.01%, so 50 basis points would be half a percentage point.

With the field looking wide open to succeed current Chair Jerome Powell , Sumerlin's position on rates puts him at least

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