Research Paper on Jerome Powell

Abstract

Jerome Hayden Powell, born in 1953 is the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve System. As

the 16th Chairman, he has been working in the position since February 5th, 2018, upon being

accepted on his nomination by the United States Senate. Born in Washington D.C., United States,

he graduated from Princeton University in the subject of politics. Also, he was a student of Law

of the Georgetown University. He worked at many law and financial institutions from a venture

capitalist, investment firm to National Treasury department and many others before assuming his

position as the Chairman of the Fed. He has worked as a clerk, vice president, editor-in-chief,

managing director, partner, founder, managing partner, visiting scholar and chairman for many

different institutions and government/non-government bodies. The monetary policy of his has been

seen as a monetary dove rather than a monetary hawk or as a realist neutral. He is one of the

wealthiest Chairpersons at the Federal Reserve. Powell is also a big believer of change and

suggested that it is the last chance for them to reform the status quo when it comes to housing

finance. He also believes in the alteration of Volcker rules to improve the and make the financial

system of the country even safer. Jerome Hayden Powell and his wife Elissa Leonard with their 3

children live in Maryland where Mrs Elissa acts as the second chair of the village.
Life Background

Jerome Powell, now 66 years of age is one of the six children of Jerome Powell and Patricia Powell

(Hayden), born in Washington, D.C. His father was also a lawyer in private practice based in

Washington D.C. and a veteran of World War 2. James J. Hayden, his maternal grandfather worked

as the Dean and lecturer respectively at the Columbus School of Law and Georgetown Law School

(Federalreservehistory.org, 2019). The five siblings of Jerome Powell are Susan, Tia, Libby,

Monica, and Mathew. Jerome Powell was nominated as one of the governors of Federal Reserve

by President Barack Obama in 2011 and appointed the following year. Earlier he worked as an

undersecretary in the Domestic Finance Treasury department for President George W. Bush

between 1992 to 1993. Jerome Hayden Powell is a registered Republican and has been serving the

party faithfully for decades. He married Elissa Ann Leonard, a producer, and writer for a science

series named Innovation in 1985 (Axilrod). The couple has three children together. He Jerome

Powell is considered to be valued at 112 million dollars, making his fortune in investment banking

(Forbes.com).

Education

Jerome Powell graduated at Georgetown Preparatory School, which was a Society of Jesus or

Jesuit preparatory school in 1972. Mr. Powell got his Bachelor Degree at Princeton University in

the year 1975, learning the subject in politics. He has done the thesis of his senior years on the

topic called “South Africa, Forces for change”. Later he got his Doctorate of Jurisprudence degree

(Juris Doctor) in 1979 from the Georgetown University Law Center. He worked as a legislative

assistant for Richard Schweiker, a Senator of Pennsylvania from 1975-1976. He is one of the very

few members of the Chairmen of the Federal Reserve who doesn’t hold a Ph.D. in Economics, the
first since 1987. Mr. Jerome Powell became Georgetown Law Journal’s editor-in-chief while

studying at Georgetown University. Before his appointment as the member of Governor's board,

Jerome served at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which is based in Washington D.C as a scholar in

visiting (Federalreservehistory.org). Mr. Powell also worked focusing on the federal and states’

fiscal problems. He has also worked on the charitable institutions that were also educational boards

such as Princeton University’s Bendheim Center of Finance. He also found a Consortium of Center

City, a government body which worked in the underdeveloped places of Washington D.C. with

sixteen parochial type schools.

Work history before being the Chairman

Jerome Powell worked as a clerk for the judge Ellsworth Van Graafeiland, who was serving the

US Court of Appeals in the 2nd circuit in New York, when Powell moved in 1979. He worked there

for two years. Then he went on working as a lawyer for Davis Polk and Wardwell from 1981-1983

and Werbel and McMillen’s firm of law from 1983 to 1984. After that, he moved to an investment

bank named Dillion, Read and Co. from 1984 to 1990 (Brain, Doug et al). Soon enough he became

the vice president of the company, focusing on financing, acquisitions, and merchant banking. The

former chairman of Dillion, and Co., Nicholas F. Brady the then US Treasury’s Secretary

appointed Jerome Powell in the US Treasury. Powell worked there for three years from 1990 to

1993. During 1992 President George George Herbert Walker Bush proposed Powell to become

Treasury of Domestic Finance department’s Under Secretary (IMinds). While working there, he

superintended the process of research with sanction for Solomon Bros. Jerome was also on a

negotiating party that appointed Warren Buffet as the chairman of Solomon. Jerome undertook the

managing director position of Bankers Trust in 1993 and quit in 1995 when the company failed to

derive a value for the underlying entity for a number of customers. After that, he got back to
working for Dillion, Read and Co. for the next two years. In 1997 he became one of the partners

at The Carlyle Group. There he established the industrial Group and carried them in Carlyle US

Buyout Fund. He left Carlyle in 2005 and established Seven Capital Partners, which was based on

mainly opportunistic investments and was a privately owned and maintained investment firm. He

then became Global Environment Fund’s managing partner, one of the private venture capital

investment firms focusing on the subject matter of energy sustainable in 2008. During the time of

the US debt-ceiling crisis in 2011, Jerome Powell worked as Bipartisan Policy Center’s visiting

scholar in between 2010 and 2012. Mr. Jerome Powell served at the center for a 1 dollar salary/year

and during his tenure, he made suggestions on the economic and default and delay system’s interest

rate for generating the amount of debt ceiling (Borak).

Work on monetary policy as the Chairman

After being nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017, he got approved as the chairman by

the Senate on January 23, 2018. He is generally seen as a realist in regulation (Borak). After his

appointment, he asked policymakers to renew some regulations such as Volcker rule, which meant

banks were restricted from a few investment activities or transactions associated hedging and

equity funds. The rechecking of Volcker rule was supposed to form regulations for excluding the

smaller banks. He has always cautioned others about the regulatory facts that can sweep-out the

economic growth, though being in line with the retention policies for much of the sweeping Dodd-

Frank Wall Street reformation and Consumer Protection Acts which came after the financial crisis

(Forbes.com). He has advocated for looking into ways to reduce unnecessary burdens after

improving the resiliency and resolvability of the banking sector, which in his words has been an

achievement. An economist named Michelle Meyer of Bank of America Merrill Lynch expressed

that Powell made a reputation being a centrist for the monetary policy spectrum (Lewis, Logan T.
et al). A 2017 survey conducted by thirty economists stated that he was more of a monetary dove,

who specializes on low unemployment factors over low inflation rates rather than a monetary

hawk, like many members of the board but Fed Spectrometer for Bloomberg Intelligence rating

gave him got a neutral stand. He has been a skeptic of large scale asset purchases by central bank

who buys some amount of government bonds and other assets in order to push the money directly

into the economic structure.

Conclusion

As the 16th Chairman of the United States’ Federal Reserve, Jerome surely is one of the most

experienced and qualified personality to hold the position. He has accomplished a lot in both his

personal as well as professional life which is evidenced by his achievements. The Trump

Administration relies on him to take the necessary steps for maintaining the economic growth of

the country. He has taken his position very seriously and achieved quite a few milestomes in the

recent times. Jerome Hayden Powell have been a busy man ever since the beginning as he has

worked in law firms, financial institutions, government organisation and non profitable

organisations and built a stady path to where he is today. This paper aims to provide information

on the chairman’s background, education history, earlier works and monetary measures taken.
References

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"Trump Taps Jerome Powell As Next Fed Chair In Call For Continuity". Forbes.com, 2019.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/11/02/trump-picks-federal-reserve-chair-
jerome-powell/#52972e1d623b.

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Brain, Doug et al. "Unlocking the Treasury Market through TRACE". FEDS Notes 2018.2251
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Lewis, Logan T. et al. "Structural Change and Global Trade". Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas,
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