Tweedledum and Tweedledee at the Fed
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President Biden says he’ll announce his choice to lead the Federal Reserve for the next four years by the end of this week, and the leading candidates are current Chairman Jerome Powell and governor Lael Brainard. This reminds us of Hillary Clinton’s famous formulation in response to the Benghazi debacle: “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
Not much, as far as we can tell. Mr. Powell has run the Fed for four years and was appointed by Donald Trump while Ms. Brainard was a Barack Obama choice. But on monetary policy they have been conjoined twins over the last four years, and both have presided over an inflationary surge with nary a public dissent or reconsideration. Either one will continue a dovish monetary policy unless the markets force their hand.
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