Trump's stamp on the Fed

For nearly four decades, chiefs of the U.S. central bank have all been reappointed to second four-year terms. Not this time.

President Trump and Jerome Powell.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

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President Trump "broke precedent" when he nominated Jerome Powell last week to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, said Ana Swanson and Binyamin Appelbaum at The New York Times. For nearly four decades, chiefs of the U.S. central bank have all been reappointed to second four-year terms, even by presidents of the opposite party. But after weeks of deliberation, Trump bypassed current Chair Janet Yellen, who was nominated by President Obama in 2013, in favor of Powell, a centrist Republican with ties to the party's establishment. "A lawyer by training and investment banker by trade," Powell has served since 2012 on the Fed Board of Governors, where he has "consistently voted with Yellen to slowly raise interest rates and sell off assets that the Fed bought up" after the financial crisis. "Trump infused the search with suspense and showmanship seldom seen in the normally staid business of picking a central bank leader," said Peter Nicholas at The Wall Street Journal. He teased the announcement in an Instagram video and cast a wide net for advice, consulting a TV personality, a casino magnate, and GOP lawmakers. His economic adviser Gary Cohn was briefly considered for the job, while Vice President Mike Pence lobbied for conservative economist John Taylor. Cohn himself made a last-minute case for Yellen. But Trump ultimately settled on the "conventional" Powell.

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