Chair Jerome Powell: An Early Retrospective

Jerome Powell was Chair of the Federal Reserve from February 2018 to May 2026. Of course, the Fed Chair does not have dictatorial power over setting monetary policy: instead, such policy is set by a vote of the 12-member Federal Open Market Committee, which in turn is made up of the seven DC-based members of the Fed Board of Governors and five presidents of the regional Federal Reserve banks (chosen on a rotating basis). However, the Chair does have, by tradition, position, and leadership, disproportionate influence over the monetary policies that are selected. How should Powell’s record as Chair be evaluated? Christina D. Romer and David H. Romer discuss “An early retrospective on monetary policy in the Powell era” (Hutchins Center Working Paper #106, Brookings Institution, June 2026). Rather than trying to do a month-by-month or meeting-by-meeting evaluation, Romer and Romer quite sensibly focus six main episodes in monetary policy during Powell’s tenure as Chair: We begin our study…