President Biden has announced he will nominate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to stay at his post for another four years.
During his first term as Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell faced blistering political pressure and an enormous economic crisis. He has confronted an ethics scandal within the central bank and the steepest inflation in more than 30 years.
Despite all that, or perhaps because of it, President Biden on Monday announced he was nominating the 68-year-old Fed chairman for another four-year term. Democrats and Republicans gleefully offered their support.
Powell somehow emerged stronger than ever from the economic, domestic and political convulsions of 2020. He steered the Fed through wild stock market swings, enormous labor market fluctuations and multiple waves of the coronavirus. Biden’s confidence in Powell reflects both a White House that wants continuity and a Fed chair who has emerged as predictable in an economy that is anything but.
“Why am I not picking fresh blood or taking the Fed in a different direction?” Biden said in remarks on Monday. “Put directly, at this moment of both enormous potential and enormous uncertainty for our economy, we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve. Jay has proven the independence that I value.”
The challenge ahead is a hefty one. The Fed is looking to encourage more employment, unwind its pandemic-era stimulus and prevent inflation from becoming a permanent feature of the economy. By many measures, the head winds of this moment — rising prices, a great reassessment of work in America, global supply chain backlogs — hardly resemble the trials of the 2020 pandemic recession. This has created a new set of challenges for Powell and his Fed colleagues.
Probably for the best.Report