Source: Washington Post
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-polic ... fed-chair/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.”
