"The specific highs and lows of his chairmanship, which ends Friday, flow from an underlying sensibility that seems almost from another time. In an era when attention, outrage, and spectacle are the currency of the realm, he put his head down and did the work."
"April 2020: The world was on lockdown, the unemployment rate was nearly 15%, GDP was in free fall, and the future appeared bleak. "None of us has the luxury of choosing our challenges; fate and history provide them for us," Powell said. "Our job is to meet the tests we are presented.""
"Powell's first press conference in March 2018. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe accidental Fed chair Just weeks before President Trump nominated him to the chair in 2017, I surveyed a group of astute Fed watchers on who would get the nod - and their consensus put Powell at a whopping 5%. Powell has no advanced training as an economist and was not a close adviser to any of the three presidents who appointed him to the Fed. His ascent to the top ranks of global economic policy is, instead, a story of hard work and being ready when the moment called upon him."
"Zoom in: Powell, a career Wall Street lawyer and dealmaker, was semi-retired when President Obama named him a governor in 2011. Powell was also a Republican, albeit of a different era; he had served in President George H.W. Bush's Treasury Department. He became a workhorse on the Fed Board of Governors under chair Janet Yellen, helping run the central bank's payment systems and other under-the-radar nitty-gritty."
His chairmanship ends Friday, shaped by a sensibility that contrasts with an era driven by attention, outrage, and spectacle. For much of the past decade, his public remarks emphasized meeting challenges presented by fate and history. During April 2020, with lockdowns, unemployment near 15%, GDP falling, and the future looking bleak, he framed the task as meeting tests rather than choosing them. His rise to Fed chair came from hard work and readiness rather than advanced economics training or close ties to presidents. He had a Wall Street legal and dealmaking background, served as a governor after being named in 2011, and contributed to operational work such as payment systems under Janet Yellen.
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