erome Hayden "Jay" Powell (born February 4, 1953) is an American central banker and former
investment banker serving as the 16th chair of the Federal Reserve. He was nominated to the Board of Governors in 2012 by President Barack Obama, and subsequently nominated as chair by President Donald Trump to succeed Janet Yellen in the position, confirmed in each case by the United States Senate. Powell was renominated as chair by President Joe Biden on November 22, 2021.[2][3][4][5] Powell earned a degree in politics from Princeton University in 1975 and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979.[6] He moved to investment banking in 1984, and worked for several financial institutions, including as a partner of The Carlyle Group.[6] In 1992, Powell briefly served as under secretary of the Treasury for domestic finance under President George H. W. Bush. Powell left Carlyle Group in 2005 and founded Severn Capital Partners, a private investment firm. He was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center from 2010 to 2012, before joining the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.[6] Powell built his reputation in Washington during the Obama administration as a consensus-builder and problem-solver.[6] Powell received bipartisan praise for the actions taken by the Federal Reserve in early-2020 to combat the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] As the Federal Reserve continued to apply high levels of monetary stimulus to further raise asset prices and support growth, some observers perceived a disconnect between asset prices and the economy.[8][9][10] Powell has responded by arguing that supporting the Fed's dual mandate of stable prices and full employment outweighed concern over high asset prices.[11] Time said the scale and manner of Powell's actions had "changed the Fed forever"[12] and shared concerns that he had conditioned Wall Street to unsustainable levels of monetary stimulus to artificially support high asset prices.[9] In November 2020, Bloomberg News called Powell "Wall Street's Head of State", as a reflection of how dominant Powell's actions were on asset prices and how profitable his actions were for Wall Street.[13] It was not until Jerome Powell had been confirmed to extend his second term, he has indicated a reduction in Quantitative easing (QE) and Mortgage-backed security (MBS) purchases due to high inflation with the CPI reading in November 2021 reaching 6.8% according the to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest level in 40 years.[14]