The Powell years at the Fed: A retrospective

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Jerome Powell’s term as Federal Reserve chair ends this spring. From the COVID-era inflation to President Trump’s attacks, it has been a tumultuous eight years with potentially long-lasting consequences for the Fed and the U.S. economy.

On June 2, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings examined the lessons learned from the Powell years. Christina and David Romer, both emeritus professors at the University of California, Berkeley, presented their new paper, “An early retrospective on monetary policy in the Powell era.”

Their presentation was followed by a panel focused on monetary policy and political independence of the Fed, with former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke of Brookings, former Fed Vice Chair Alan Blinder of Princeton, Kristin Forbes of MIT, and Dan Ivascyn of PIMCO. David Wessel of the Hutchins Center moderated. Following that, a panel discussed the Powell Fed’s responses to bouts of financial instability. Panelists included Andrew Metrick of Yale and former Fed governors Randall Quarles of Cynosure Group and Dan Tarullo of Harvard. Former Fed Vice Chair Don Kohn of Brookings moderated. Each panel took questions from the audience. Janet Yellen, former Fed chair and former Treasury secretary, gave closing thoughts.