Voting Station

Jerome Powell

Please vote to return to collections.

Financier

The Resume

    (February 4, 1953- )
    Born in Washington, District of Columbia
    Investment banker
    Partner in the Carlyle Group and the Global Environment Fund
    Appointed to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (2012)
    Named Chair of the Federal Reserve (February 5, 2018)

Why he might be annoying:

    A magazine profile described him as ‘amiable and likable without being too interesting.’
    He got named to the Federal Reserve Board only because Republican Senators threatened to filibuster President Obama’s nominees if he did not include at least one Republican in the group.
    As Federal Reserve Chair, he initially followed a tight money policy, disappointing <51>President Trump At one point, Trump tweeted, ‘My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?’
    His statement that the Fed’s program of selling off bonds and other assets was ‘on automatic pilot’ spooked investors, causing a temporary crisis in the stock market (December, 2018).
    Many economists expressed concern that the Fed’s continuous pumping of money into the economy to counter the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic created a speculative bubble in stock prices.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His predecessor as Fed Chair, Janet Yellen said, ‘He recognized explicitly and told everyone he had a lot to learn, and he set about doing so in a very thoughtful and methodical way…. That was very impressive to me.’
    He promoted greater transparency and accountability at the Fed, doubling the number of press conferences on monetary policy and holding a series of ‘Fed Listens’ events.
    He also regularly reached out to members of Congress, unlike his predecessors.
    He earned bipartisan praise for his efforts to counter the financial effects of the COVID-19 epidemic, including cutting interest rates to zero, dramatically increasing the Fed’s purchase of assets, and introducing new tools, such as direct money lending by the Fed.
    He was described in ‘New York’ magazine as ‘the one person in Washington who seems able to get something done.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 26 Votes: 57.69% Annoying