Jerome Powell, FED Chair - World's Most Powerful Civil Servant!
By Bryan Kelly
Federal Reserve Bank Chair, Jerome Powell Appointed by President Donald Trump.
Jerome Powell became one of the world’s most powerful players when U.S. President Donald Trump appointed him FED Chair. More than any other civil servant in the world, Jerome Powell now sits at the top of the world of economic and financial influence.
Powell faces the huge challenge of guiding America and the entire economic and banking world to “normal” interest rates. This follows a decade of historically low interest rates and quantitative easing. The billions those programs pumped into the market kept the economy going after the 2008 financial crisis. At that time the credit and financial crisis had the world on the edge of failure and darkness.
The brilliant Ben Bernanke, FED Chair at the time of the crisis, quickly moved with bold and imaginative programs. His programs kept us from plunging into darkness. With recover now in hand, the world now seems ready to move on. The time has come to end of the ultra low, almost free interest rate era.
That means we witness more economic history getting made. As we climb from the interest rate bottom, let’s hope Powell and the FED gets this part of the job right! With another excellent Chair in place, I think they will get it right.
Powell’s appointment moves him up from his position as a member of the Federal Reserve Board. To our benefit, he knows his way around the place and who the other players are. Powell first arrived when nominated to the FED Board of Governors by President Barack Obama. That was in December 2011. So he has FED experience. He knows the territory. His appointment as Chair replaces the steady hand of now retired Janet Yellen who followed Bernanke.
A little FED Chair Jerome Powell background
Powell has a long history of leadership, brilliance and going from success to success. Following Princeton University and Georgetown Law Center, he served as a state legislative assistant. He astutely took advantage of positions to move among leading legal minds as well as the financially and politically powerful. He developed contacts at the highest levels of the Republican establishment. His law career included clerking for an appeals court judge on the Second Circuit. He also gained experience at leading New York law firms.
His knowledge, background and success grew when he turned his career focus to the world of investment banking. He worked at a number of Wall Street firms climbing as high as vice president. His focused on financing, merchant banking and mergers and acquisition work. He grew in knowledge, success and wealth.
In higher profile public roles he was known for his oversight of the “too big to fail” banks. Often seen as a monetary dove, he seems to be middle to the road and skeptical of the quantitative easing rounds that have characterized the last decade of FED policy. This could be exactly the right time to move on from that creative bit of economic and financial wizardry.
Certainly while favoring Wall Street reform and consumer protection, Powell remains an economic conservative. He advocates the need for more efficient regulation. He seeks reforms to support housing finance with private capital to decrease dependence on government programs.
In the months and years ahead, we could see some interesting developments from this FED leader.
Janet Yellen – First Female FED Chair Retires
Known before and since her FED retirement as an exceptional teacher, the widely respected Janet Yellen was the steady, quiet and reliable hand staying the course as the FED and the economy slowly moved beyond the financial crisis of 2008. She was excellent as the steady and sure hand guiding the FED slowly back from the economic cliff.
For a deeper discussion see Janet Yellen and Fed Expectations written when she first took the FED reins from Ben Bernanke.
Now the times, economy and financial circumstances have evolved. This could be the perfect intersection to take on new leadership, direction and thinking.
A little reminder of that big 2008 crisis
In economics yesterday and the past matters. Our current situation and where we can go forward, depend on where we have been. In September, 2008, we fell in to a huge financial hole. With the entire world teetering on the brink of financial disaster, the brilliant and imaginative Ben Bernanke invented credit and economic magic that saved the world from credit collapse and an ugly depression. Click here to read more.
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