Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal reports that Federal Reserve Open Market Committee Chairman Jerome Powell says he has no intention of leaving the Fed before his term expires. Timiraos writes:
The Federal Reserve approved a quarter-point interest rate cut Thursday but signaled a little more uncertainty over how quickly it would continue lowering rates, as it seeks to prevent large rate increases of the prior 2½ years from unnecessarily slowing the economy.
At a news conference after the meeting, Chair Jerome Powell said the election wouldn’t have any effect on the Fed’s immediate policy decisions. He also reaffirmed his intention to stay at the Fed until his four-year term as chair expires in May 2026, and said he would refuse to step down if asked to resign.
Asked if he thought a president could remove him or other senior personnel from their positions before their terms end, Powell repeated his longstanding view with an uncharacteristically terse answer: “Not permitted under the law.” […]
Given recent strength in the economy, Fed officials may wish they had started with a smaller quarter-point cut in September, said Glenn Hubbard, a Columbia University economist who served as a senior adviser to President George W. Bush.
If inflation proves to be slower to return to the Fed’s target and if the neutral rate is higher, “you don’t really have a lot of room to move down,” said Hubbard. “I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of cuts.”
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