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It worked. Powell’s success runs counter to the populist political narrative of our era: The Fed’s wonky technocracy has succeeded while the theoretically more politically accountable arms of our government have failed. The Fed is explicitly designed to be insulated from elections — governors are appointed to terms of up to 14 years and cannot be fired by the president without cause, while the Fed’s regional-bank presidents are chosen in consultation with stakeholders like banks and businesses.
Powell lives in Chevy Chase Village, a very wealthy Maryland suburb of some 2,000 residents just outside the D.C. border. His wife is the chairwoman of the village board, a thankless role in which she oversaw an acrimonious fight last year over a dog park that was constructed and then dismantled because neighbors complained of excessive noise; the Washington Post covered the controversy under the headline “Barking Dogs at Chevy Chase Dog Park Divide the Rich and Powerful.
The president could have renominated Obama’s choice to run the Fed, Yellen, whose views on monetary policy are closer to Trump’s. There is precedent: Reagan, Clinton, and Obama all renominated Fed chairs who had originally been chosen by a predecessor of the rival party. But Yellen is a Democrat, and she was Obama’s pick, and Trump is notoriously suspicious of “Obama holdovers,” and also she is only five feet tall.
“He recognized explicitly and told everyone he had a lot to learn, and he set about doing so in a very thoughtful and methodical way,” said Yellen, who was vice-chair of the Fed when Powell joined the board and is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “There was nothing arrogant about the way he went about doing this; it was just a flat-out recognition: If he was going to be helpful, he needed to make sure he had a good foundation, and he set out to acquire it.
But thanks in part to the relationships Powell has forged, the Republican–controlled Senate has been uncharacteristically resistant to the president’s out-of-the-box Fed picks.
jbarro Unfortunately the SenateGOP dropped the ball and let all of Powell's work go to shit. They had one job. Help the People. Instating an unqualified Judge was more important. They didn't care about their constituents.
jbarro Manipulate the market so we don't see the crash coming?
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