Jerome Hayden Powell (born February 4, 1953) is a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and has served since 2012. On November 2, 2017, PresidentDonald Trump nominated Powell to serve as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve.[4]
Early life and education[edit]
Powell was born on February 4, 1953 inWashington, D.C., the son of Patricia (Hayden) and Jerome Powell, a lawyer in private practice.[5] His maternal grandfather, James J. Hayden, was Dean of the Columbus School of Law.[6]
In 1971, Powell graduated from Georgetown Preparatory School, a Jesuit university-preparatory school. He received a Bachelor of Arts in politics from Princeton University in 1975, where his senior thesis was titled "South Africa: Forces for Change."[7] In 1975-1976, he spent a year as a legislative assistant to Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania,[8][9] who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Vice President of the United States on a ticket with Ronald Reagan during the primary election in 1976.
Powell earned a Juris Doctor degree fromGeorgetown University Law Center in 1979, where he was editor-in-chief of theGeorgetown Law Journal.[10]
In 1979, Powell moved to New York City and became a clerk to Judge Ellsworth Van Graafeiland of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. From 1981 to 1983, Powell was a lawyer with Davis Polk & Wardwell, and from 1983 to 1984, he worked at the firm of Werbel & McMillen.[9]
From 1984 to 1990, Powell worked at Dillon, Read & Co., an investment bank, where he concentrated on financing, merchant banking, and mergers and acquisitions, rising to the position of vice president.[9][11]
Between 1990 and 1993, Powell worked in the United States Department of the Treasury, at which time Nicholas F. Brady, the former chairman of Dillon, Read & Co., was the United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1992, Powell became the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance after being nominated by George H. W. Bush.[9][11][8]During his stint at the Treasury, Powell oversaw the investigation and sanctioning ofSalomon Brothers after one of its traders submitted false bids for a United States Treasury security.[12] Powell was also involved in the negotiations that made Warren Buffett thechairman of Salomon.[13]
In 1993, Powell began working as a managing director for Bankers Trust, but he quit in 1995 after the bank got into trouble after several customers suffered large losses due toderivatives. He then went back to work for Dillon, Read & Co.[11]
From 1997 to 2005, Powell was a partner at The Carlyle Group, where he founded and led the Industrial Group within the Carlyle U.S. Buyout Fund.[10][14]
After leaving Carlyle, Powell founded Severn Capital Partners, a private investment firm focused on specialty finance and opportunistic investments in the industrial sector.[15]
In 2008, Powell became a managing partner of the Global Environment Fund, a private equity and venture capital firm that invests in sustainable energy.[15]
Between 2010 and 2012, Powell was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center, athink tank in Washington, D.C., where he worked on getting Congress to raise the United States debt ceiling during the United States debt-ceiling crisis of 2011. Powell presented the implications to the economy and interest rates of a default or a delay in raising the debt ceiling.[14] He worked for a salary of $1 per year.[2]
Federal Reserve Board of Governors[edit]
In December 2011, along with Jeremy C. Stein, Powell was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Barack Obama. The nomination included two people to help garner bipartisan support for both nominees since Stein's nomination had previously been filibustered. Powell's nomination was the first time that a president nominated a member of the opposition party for such a position since 1988.[1] He took office on May 25, 2012, to fill the unexpired term of Frederic Mishkin, who resigned. In January 2014, he was nominated for another term, and, in June 2014, he was confirmed by the United States Senate in a 67-24 vote for a 14-year term ending January 31, 2028.[16]
In 2013, Powell made a speech regarding financial regulation and ending "too big to fail".[17]In April 2017, he took over oversight of the "too big to fail" banks.[18]
Nomination as Chair of the Federal Reserve[edit]
On November 2, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Powell to serve as the Chair of the Federal Reserve.[4]
Economic philosophy[edit]
Monetary policy[edit]
A survey of 30 economists in March 2017 noted that Powell was slightly more of amonetary dove than the average member of the Board of Governors. However, The Bloomberg Intelligence Fed Spectrometer rated Powell as neutral (i.e. neither a hawk nor a dove). Powell has been a skeptic of round 3 of quantitative easing, initiated in 2012, although he did vote in favor of implementation.[19]
Financial regulation[edit]
Powell “appears to largely support” the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, although he has stated that "we can do it more efficiently".[19] In an October 2017 speech, Powell stated that higher capital and liquidity requirements and stress tests have made the financial system safer and must be preserved. However, he also stated that the Volcker Rule should be re-written to exclude smaller banks.[19]
Housing finance reform[edit]
In a July 2017 speech, Powell said that, in regards to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the status quo is "unacceptable" and that the current situation "may feel comfortable, but it is also unsustainable". He warned that "the next few years may present our last best chance" to "address the ultimate status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" and avoid "repeating the mistakes of the past". Powell expressed concerns that, in the current situation, the government is responsible for mortgage defaults and that lending standards were too rigid, noting that these can be solved by encouraging "ample amounts of private capital to support housing finance activities".[20]
Personal life[edit]
In 1985, Powell married Ellissa Leonard.[5] They have 3 children[10] and reside in Chevy Chase Village, Maryland, where Ellissa is vice chair of the board of managers.[21] In 2010, Powell was on the board of governors of Chevy Chase Club, a country club.[22]
Based on public filings, Powell's net worth is estimated to be as much as $112 million.[2][3]He is the richest member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.[23]
Powell has served on the boards of charitable and educational institutions including DC Prep, a public charter school, the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University, and The Nature Conservancy. He was also a founder of the Center City Consortium, a group of 16 parochial schools in the poorest areas of Washington, D.C.[14]
Powell is a registered Republican.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Powell
