Senate confirms Jerome Powell to second term as Federal Reserve chair

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The Senate confirmed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell to a second term leading the central bank on Thursday, as he faces the enormous task of slashing the highest inflation in 40 years without sending the country into a recession. The Senate supported Powell to another four year term by a vote of 80-19.

Powell, 69, first became Fed chair in 2018 after being tapped for the position by former president Donald Trump. He was reappointed by President Biden and has broad support among Republicans and Democrats, who have praised his leadership since the pandemic seized the economy in spring 2020. “Few institutions are more important to help steer our economy in the right direction — and to fight inflation — than the Fed,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday on the Senate floor. “Chairman Powell presided as Fed chair during some of the most challenging moments in modern American history.”

The challenge of getting the economy on more sustainable footing is a daunting one. The main tool for the Fed to slow down the economy is through interest rates, which work with blunt force. Higher rates make an array of loans costlier for households and businesses, and they can eventually slow consumer spending and business investment. The Fed bets that seven rate hikes this year will rein in inflation while recalibrating the job market so there is less demand for workers.

“The economy is strong, and is well positioned to handle tighter monetary policy,” Powell said at a news conference last week. “So, but I’ll say I do expect that this will be very challenging, it’s not going to be easy. And it may well depend, of course on events that are not in our under our control. But our job is to use our tools to try to achieve that outcome. And that’s what we’re going to do.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/05/12/powell-fed-chair/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Powell was a safe choice who offended no one in power and brought a banking pedigree

He's 10 months late curbing bond purchases and it took him 6 months to announce interest rate hikes before he actually did it. Perfect GOP Fed timing for the election. This inflation was baked in 2010 to 2017 QE1-2-3 Bernanke, in Republican tax cuts, in Stim1-2-3, in the unexpected COVID, and in the Fed's tolerance for asset bubbles and market spikes. The only thing going for the Fed is the flexibility in modern economies. As our products shrink and manufacturers cheapen their output, it's evident in my mind that there is little resource slack in much of anything. I give Powell a grade of D-.

[sprinkleeninow]

2. 👍

[CrispyQ]

3. +1 Succinctly stated. -nt

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Don't forget that Yellen was in there somewhere

(2014 - 2018)

[hueymahl]

7. Generous

I'm not sure how he could have done worse.

[Bluethroughu]

14. 100%!

Why was he confirmed?

[NullTuples]

4. Why is Biden keeping so many McConnell people when he doesn't need to do so?

The media is oddly not mentioning much that Biden had to re-nominate Powell for him to be confirmed. Powell was made Chair by Trump in 2018.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. It's the terms

The governors are for 14 years and the "Chair" position is for 4 years. Yellen was Chair from 2014 until 2018 before Powell was promoted to that position by 45, and Yellen then left the Fed. As we know, Yellen later became Treasury Secretary under Biden.

So as an example, Lisa Cook's confirmation yesterday was to fill out the remaining years of Yellen's original term.

Jerome Powell is confirmed for a second term as Fed chair.


By Jeanna Smialek and Emily Cochrane

May 12, 2022 Updated 2:56 p.m. ET


Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, was confirmed to a second four-year term at the head of the central bank on Thursday — keeping him in one of the most consequential jobs in the United States and world economy at a moment of rapid inflation and deep uncertainty.

Mr. Powell, who was first chosen as a Fed governor by former President Barack Obama and then elevated to chair by former President Donald J. Trump, was renominated by President Biden late last year.

(snip)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/business/jerome-powell-confirmed.html

Obama nominates a Republican and a Democrat to the Fed


By Zachary A. Goldfarb
December 27, 2011

President Obama on Tuesday nominated a Republican and a Democrat to serve on the Federal Reserve, as he seeks to break a political logjam preventing many of his high-profile nominees for positions in economic policy and financial regulation from taking office.

The Democrat, Harvard professor Jeremy Stein, served in the Obama administration in the White House and Treasury Department. The Republican, Jerome “Jay” Powell, was a Treasury official in the George H.W. Bush administration and a former financial executive. Both men would bring specialized knowledge in finance — one from the academic perspective, the other from industry — to the Fed.

By pairing a Republican and a Democrat, Obama might be hoping that Republicans will allow them easier passage. Senate Republicans have blocked many of Obama’s top nominees, including MIT professor and Nobel laureate Peter Diamond, who was a nominee for the Fed and ultimately withdrew, and Richard Cordray, the nominee to oversee the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The White House has repeatedly blasted Senate Republicans for standing in the way of Obama’s nominations for top economic positions, at a time when his stewardship of the economy is a leading issue in the presidential campaign. Stein and Powell, if confirmed, would fill the two vacant seats on the seven-member Fed board of governors, led by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. The nominations come as the Fed is wrestling with the divisive question of how much more to do, if anything, to try to create jobs.

(snip)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-nominates-democrat-jeremy-stein-republican-jerome-jay-powell-to-fed/2011/12/27/gIQAwuywKP_story.html

[rurallib]

8. Always makes me mad when a Democratic president appoints a Republican

in economic positions like that. Republicans always fuck up the economy.

There isn't one Democrat of 330,000,000 people capable of handling that job?

We always seem to bow to the concept that Republicans are better for the economy and for Defense.

Just had to rant. I wouldn't trust a Republican with the economy one bit.

[NullTuples]

15. It makes it feel like a slow ratcheting to the right...

[roamer65]

9. Powell should have been canned.

There were very qualified candidates who are more Democratic leaning.

Timothy Geithner, Lael Brainard, etc, etc…

[BumRushDaShow]

10. "Timothy Geithner"

DU was having head explosions that made the ones in "Mars Attacks!" look like water balloon pops back when was appointed Treasury Secretary.

He was already on the Fed. Board just before (as the NY Governor during the Lehman meltdown) so I doubt he wants any reduxes.

[roamer65]

11. He probably doesn't.

But I think Lael would have been the best choice.

She has been on the board since 2014.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. After the bruising

(that I watched yesterday) of getting Lisa Cook on the Board, I think they were trying to avoid the protracted fight and move on to get through the other confirmations (leaving one vacancy since they couldn't get Sarah Raskin in). They confirmed another to the Board yesterday as well - Philip Jefferson.

Brainard had been confirmed for Vice Chair so if Powell does leave early (he's been in there in some capacity for so long - since 2011), she'd probably be a shoe-in.

[Sewa]

12. Correct, Powell is a poor choice

💀🤙