Jerome Powell’s mixed legacy
NEW YORK — Call it one of the biggest turnarounds in the U.S. Federal Reserve’s storied history. When Jerome Powell concludes his two-term tenure as Fed chair on May 15, his legacy is likely to reflect a striking irony: it will have been secured by the man who sought most aggressively to undermine him. History is often written in the shadows of conflict, and Powell’s leadership at the Fed is no exception. The narrative that will likely endure is not one of multiple failures, but of political resilience. Rather than dwelling on a long list of mishaps — significant policy errors, protracted periods of the Fed overshooting its inflation target, poor communication and compliance, supervisory and other lapses — commentators and historians will remember Powell as the chair who became a bulwark against unprecedented attacks on the central bank’s independence. Armed with the overwhelming historical consensus that central-bank autonomy is a prerequisite for long-term economic well-being, Powell went to extraordinary lengths to insulate the Fed from executive overreach. Throughout bo
