"Jerome Powell, the 72-year-old chair of the Federal Reserve, is not the kind of guy you'd expect to see flashing across Instagram and Tiktok to the tune of a high-saturated techno remix. Yet, his image has broken containment over the last few days, as Gen Z has turned the famously taciturn technocrat into a symbol of defiance of the second Trump era, clad with reverent edits usually reserved for K-Pop stars."
"In August 2020, Powell revealed that the Fed had revised its monetary policy framework to emphasize the "broad-based and inclusive goal" of maximum employment, running the economy as hot as it took to get all Americans back to work. Critics soon pounced, warning of the risk of higher inflation, and Powell's series of aggressive rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 made this policy a close-but-distant memory."
Memes typically target pop stars, politicians and villains, but Gen Z has recently elevated Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell into an unexpected internet figure. The 72-year-old technocrat has been edited into reverent, K-Pop–style images and videos as a symbol of defiance of the second Trump era. Powell was initially chosen by Trump to replace Janet Yellen, and he kept and expanded the Fed's emphasis on full employment. In August 2020 the Fed adopted a framework stressing a “broad-based and inclusive goal” of maximum employment. Critics warned of inflation risks, and aggressive 2022–23 rate hikes later shifted focus away from that approach. The meme trend gained early momentum from a video by Democratic strategist Keith Edwards.
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