Biden taps Powell for second term as Fed chair in sign of continuity at central bank

During his first term as Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell faced blistering political pressure and an enormous economic crisis. He has confronted an ethics scandal within the central bank and the steepest inflation in more than 30 years.

Despite all that, or perhaps because of it, President Biden on Monday announced he was nominating the 68-year-old Fed chairman for another four-year term. Democrats and Republicans gleefully offered their support.

Powell somehow emerged stronger than ever from the economic, domestic and political convulsions of 2020. He steered the Fed through wild stock market swings, enormous labor market fluctuations and multiple waves of the coronavirus. Biden’s confidence in Powell reflects both a White House that wants continuity and a Fed chair who has emerged as predictable in an economy that is anything but.