Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s Legacy

Summary

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Big Take Podcast: "Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s Legacy"

Air Date: May 10, 2026
Host: David Gura
Featured Reporters: Katerina Siriva, Amara Omokwe

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the complex and controversial tenure of Jerome Powell as Chair of the Federal Reserve. With Powell stepping down after more than eight years—and as political pressure on the Fed intensifies—Bloomberg reporters Katerina Siriva and Amara Omokwe reflect on his legacy, his battles to defend Fed independence (especially against President Trump), and the impact of his policy choices on the US and the global economy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jerome Powell's Background & Path to Fed Chair

[04:39–07:23]

• Powell’s lack of a PhD in economics was unusual for a modern Fed Chair, but not unprecedented.
• Katerina Siriva: “Powell worked at the Treasury Department during the first Bush administration...was in private equity in the '90s...later worked at a think tank on issues like US debt defaults, which drew Obama’s attention.”
• Appointed by Obama in a bipartisan attempt, then nominated as Chair by Trump in 2017—partly for his reputation as a pragmatic, hard-working Republican.

2. Early Tensions: Powell vs. Trump

[06:42–08:13]

• Trump’s relationship soured almost immediately as Powell began raising interest rates—contrary to Trump’s preference for low rates.
• Amara Omokwe: “There really wasn't much of a honeymoon period for Jay Powell as Fed Chair.”
• Trump's public, aggressive criticisms broke with tradition (“These criticisms from the President started … that was a huge surprise… [they] tended to happen in private.” – [07:39], Katerina Siriva).

3. The Economy Powell Inherited

[08:13–09:45]

• Powell joined as the economy was slowly recovering from the 2008 crisis—wages and consumer demand were sluggish, and inflation was persistently low.
• Amara Omokwe: “One of the main concerns was that inflation was too low… the labor market... finally turning a corner... but still not much inflation.”
• Set the stage for the Fed’s later reconsideration of traditional links between unemployment and inflation.

4. Pandemic Response: Aggression & Aftermath

[10:17–12:21]

• Fed’s immediate and aggressive action during COVID: slashing rates, launching emergency lending.
  • Katerina Siriva: “They came to it with guns blazing... quickly lowered interest rates... unleashed a slew of special facilities... lender of last resort.”
• Holding rates low for too long seen as a major misstep. The Fed underestimated inflation’s stickiness, labeling it “transitory.”
  • Amara Omokwe: “Chair Powell and the Fed really leaned into this idea… we expect this to be transitory... By the fall of 2021… maybe it’s time to retire this transitory word.”
  • Jerome Powell: “It’s become a word that’s attracted a lot of attention that maybe is distracting from our message, which we want to be as clear as possible.” [12:21]

5. Inflation, Politics, and the 2024 Election

[12:28–13:47]

• Fed’s late response “dinged” its credibility. Inflation’s political impact was massive:
  • Amara Omokwe: “Americans... are really concerned about affordability... a big reason why President Trump was able to win the 2024 election.”
• New supply shocks—e.g., the US war in Iran, Trump’s tariffs—make the Fed wary of again underestimating inflation.

6. Renewed Trump Attacks and Fed Independence Under Siege

[17:03–18:53]

• Trump escalated attacks in his second term:
  • Publicly insulted Powell and threatened to fire him.
  • Seized on the cost of Fed HQ renovations as pretext for legal attacks.
• DOJ launched, then dropped, a criminal investigation after Trump’s allies accused Powell of lying during renovation-related testimony.
• Amara Omokwe: “These subpoenas were just so extraordinary... he kind of felt he had to lay out this really forceful defense of Fed independence.”
• Trump also attempted to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook—a historic first.
• Key Issue: Whether the Fed can remain independent in the face of overt political intimidation.

7. Powell Steps Down—but Stays On the Board

[20:05–22:57]

• Unusual move: Powell will remain as a Fed governor, out of the limelight, as new Chair Kevin Warsh takes over.
• Katerina Siriva: “We don't really have a playbook for this... he’s done so much consensus-building, he has immense support among his colleagues... so if there’s a lot of controversy or anger about the new leadership, they might kind of gravitate toward the old boss.”
• Amara Omokwe: “This awkward, weird situation... is completely the creation of the Trump administration... Powell was fully prepared to leave, but now he feels he has to stay and defend the institution.”

8. Global Stakes of US Central Bank Independence

[22:57–23:44]

• The Fed’s credibility—globally—is on the line.
• Katerina Siriva: “You have literally the eyes of central banks and governments all over the world on the US right now… if the world’s most powerful central bank has to cede some of its independence…”

9. Powell’s Legacy: Inflation vs. Independence

[24:09–25:02]

• Powell reluctant to define his own legacy; deflected legacy questions in his final press conference.
• Amara Omokwe: “If you judge Chair Powell on inflation, you could argue that he hasn’t done the best… But he will likely be remembered as the person who defended Fed independence and made it clear to the American people how important that is.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Trump on Powell’s future ([02:53]): "Do I want him to resign? Let me put it this way. If he did, I wouldn’t stop him."
• Siriva on public criticism ([07:39]): "When the criticism from the president started, that was a huge surprise… it tends to happen in private."
• Omokwe on Powell's learning curve ([06:14]): "He kind of developed this reputation for really working hard to understand the economics... really grasping some of these concepts."
• Omokwe on the “transitory” mistake ([12:28]): “They got that one wrong, admittedly… it has been a ding on their credibility.”
• Siriva on Powell’s influence ([20:24]): “He really has done that through cultivating this culture of consensus building. That is how they have reached their decisions under him."
• Omokwe on Powell’s motivation to stay ([22:14]): “Chair Powell was fully prepared to leave… like he was ready to just ride off into the sunset… but now he really feels like I have to stay here and make sure that things don’t go off the rails.”
• Siriva on global implications ([22:57]): “You have literally the eyes of central banks and governments all over the world on the US right now.”
• Omokwe on legacy ([24:09]): “Because he is now viewed as this person who has stood up to President Trump... I think that is arguably going to be how he is most remembered.”

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Important Timestamps

• 02:08 – Jerome Powell’s tenure overview begins
• 04:39 – Powell’s unorthodox background discussed
• 06:42 – Early Trump-Powell friction, public criticisms
• 08:13 – The economy and Fed priorities when Powell joined
• 10:17 – Pandemic response: policy and mistakes
• 12:21 – The “transitory” inflation controversy
• 13:47 – Inflation’s political impact and 2024 election
• 17:03 – Trump 2.0: Renewed attacks on Powell, legal threats
• 20:05 – Powell stays on the Board; challenges ahead with new chair
• 22:57 – Global consequences of Fed independence
• 24:09 – Assessing Powell’s legacy: inflation vs. independence

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Episode Tone and Style

The discussion is sober, analytical, and informed by deep reporting. The journalists acknowledge Powell’s missteps—particularly on inflation—while also emphasizing the unprecedented and high-stakes challenges he faced. The tone is one of measured respect and concern for the institution, rather than hagiography or simple criticism.

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This summary captures the major themes, key details, and memorable moments of the "Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s Legacy" episode of the Big Take podcast. It provides a clear roadmap for anyone interested in Powell’s impact on monetary policy and the ongoing battle over central bank independence in the US and beyond.

Transcript

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[A]

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts Radio

[B]

News Today marks the start of Jerome Powell's final week as chair of the Federal Reserve. He's led the Fed for more than eight years, and it's been quite a run.

[D]

He really is the first to have to test these limits that have been imposed on the Fed by convention. I don't want to say legally. It's more a conventional thing, right?

[B]

Katerina Siriva covers the Fed for Bloomberg. She's tracked every twist and turn in Powell's career, particularly when it comes to his relationship with President Trump, who nominated Powell to be the 16th chair of the Fed in 2017.

[C]

He's strong, he's committed, he's smart.

[B]

But Trump had a change of heart pretty early on. Here he is just two years later

[C]

Do I want him to resign? Let me put it this way.

[D]

If he did, I wouldn't stop him.

[B]

In the time since, Trump has become increasingly critical of Powell, ramping up his attacks on the chair and threatening the central bank's ability to set rates without government pressure or interference. That conflict has become a hallmark of Powell's tenure.

[C]

If not for this question of Fed independence, probably what we would have spent most of this conversation talking about is the pandemic response.

[B]

That's Amera Omokwe, another Bloomberg reporter who covers the Fed.

[C]

The forceful way that the Fed responded to try to keep the US Economy from experiencing the worst outcomes, and then how it responded to inflation and the big miss.

[B]

Amera and Katharina have spent the last few months looking back on Powell's time at the Fed, first as a governor under President Obama and then as chair under Presidents Biden and Trump. They've taken stock of Powell's successes and missteps and looked at what his legacy is, is likely to be. I'm David Gura and this is the big take from Bloomberg News. Today. On the show, two Bloomberg reporters reflect on Jerome Powell's tenure at the Federal Reserve, how he's resisted President Trump's attacks on him and the Fed, and how the policies he's championed have shaped the economy. So I want to roll back the clock to when Jerome Powell joined the Fed. He was appointed to serve on the board governors of the Fed in 2012 by President Obama, selected by President Trump for the chair position in 2017. He is somebody who went to law school. He's not a PhD economist. And I remember that being kind of a big deal when he was appointed for the job. Katarina, tell me more about Powell's background prior to joining the Fed and how he got the chair position.

[D]

I think it's perhaps unusual in this modern day where we've seen a lot of Fed chairs have kind of that traditional PhD in economics background, but not unusual when you go back a bit, bit further than that in history. Powell worked at the Treasury Department during the first Bush administration. He was in private equity in the 90s, kind of famously at Carlisle, one of the big private equity companies doing, you know, leveraged buyout deals. And then in the 2000s, he was kind of feeling like he wanted to go back into public service. And he was working at a think tank in D.C. he was doing a lot of work on behalf of the Obama administration in Congress, explaining to elected officials what it would mean to default on the debt and why this is something, you know, The US should avoid at all costs. And that caught the eye of President Obama when the Obama administration was looking to appoint a couple new people to Fed governor positions. This was at a time when these appointments still usually tended to come in a bipartisan way. So President Obama was looking for a Republican to appoint alongside his Democrats election and he found Powell.

[B]

Amera, what was it about Jay Powell that appealed to President Trump when he was deciding who to nominate to be Fed Chair?

[C]

Well, he was looking for a Republican, obviously. And I think also Jay Powell at the time had the recommendation of key people in the Trump administration, notably the Treasury Secretary at the time, Steven Mnuchin. And in Chair Powell's days as a governor, I think he really impressed his colleagues because he wasn't an economist, but he kind of developed this reputation for really working hard to understand the economics, to understand monetary theory, reading textbooks, talking to colleagues, really trying to make sure that he understood what he was doing and really grasping some of these concepts that he had to deal with as a governor and later. Chair.

[B]

Amira, when did the relationship between Powell and Trump start to sour?

[C]

There really wasn't much of a honeymoon period for Jay Powell as Fed Chair. He became fed chair in 2018 and that that year he led the Fed to hike rates a couple of times. And as we know, President Trump generally favors lower rates. And so we started to see President Trump push back on those rate cuts publicly, which is unusual for a president. Right. And that was just a harbinger of things to come. But yeah, Chair Powell really has been experiencing this tension and these criticisms from President Trump since pretty much early on in his chair tenure.

[B]

Kat, we're going to get into the way that that tension has continued to build. But take us back to maybe the first or the second time the President criticized what the Fed did or Jay Powell did. And just remind us how that reverberated across Wall street and among economists seeing that level of pushback from the President.

[D]

He took to social media back then, Twitter being the preferred platform, and started criticizing Chair Powell for presiding over these interest rate. These were very much expected. They had telegraphed that they would do this. They had already been increasing interest rates, so this wasn't really surprising to markets. But when the criticism from the President started, that was a huge surprise. Sure, Fed chairs have have been criticized by elected officials, but it tends to happen in private.

[B]

Mary, let me ask you about the economy we had when Jay Powell started as a Fed governor back during the Obama administration. What did it look like and what were the Fed's priorities at that.

[C]

When Jay Powell started, the U.S. economy was still recovering from the financial crisis of 08 and 09. And the Fed's main concern at that time was actually how sluggish the recovery was, how long it was taking for employment to bounce back, how long it was taking for consumer demand to bounce back. And really one of the main concerns was that inflation was too low. So for much of the period following the financial crisis, the Fed basically had rates at zero, near zero. And the concern was that we really weren't seeing much inflation, which in some respects can also be a problem. What was interesting was as the decade kind of closed out, we started to see the fact that the labor market actually started to improve. We started to see groups that tend to be marginalized in the labor market actually start to see gains. And it felt like, okay, the economy is finally turning a corner from this pretty much a decade of this sluggish recovery that we were seeing. And at the same time we still weren't seeing much inflation. And so the Fed started to really think about this idea that, okay, unlike traditional economic theory would reason that a labor market that has momentum would lead to inflation. Maybe there is a world in which we can have a good labor market and we don't necessarily see inflationary pressures.

[D]

For Chair Powell, I think one of the big lessons from the 08 response, which of course was under then Chair Ben Bernanke, was that their probably wasn't enough of a fiscal response at that point. And that's why you saw such a dragged out recovery from that. And there was kind of broad consensus in Washington at that point that they wanted to avoid that again. And so you saw the Chair be pretty forceful in his calls for a big and aggressive fiscal response to the, to the pandemic.

[B]

Katharina, let's talk more about the pandemic and the way that it was such a huge trial for Fed Chair Jerome Powell. How did Powell approach policymaking during the early days of the COVID 19 pandemic?

[D]

I think it's fair to say that they came to it with guns blazing. I think the lesson from the 2008 response were that you really need to confront these things quickly and aggressively. And that is what the Fed did. It quickly lowered interest rates, getting them to zero by about mid March. And it unleashed a slew of special facilities. These are emergency lending facilities because the central bank is of course, the lender of last resort. This is one of its primary functions. And that's what it did at the onset of the COVID Pandemic Amirah.

[B]

The Fed's decision to keep interest rates low as the economy began to emerge from, from the pandemic is now widely seen as a, as a misstep. Jay Powell has acknowledged as much. But back then, the term we kept hearing so much was that inflation was transitory. As these transitory supply effects abate, note that a transitory rise in inflation, only transitory effects on inflation. Take me back to that time and explain the consequences of the Fed failing to recognize the fact that inflation was not transitory, that it was more ingrained than policymakers thought.

[C]

Chair Powell and the Fed really leaned into this idea that because the inflation at the time was, was thought to be caused by supply shocks, that it was not something that monetary policy necessarily needs to respond to. Right? This is traditional economic supply shocks tend to move through in time. And really the Fed's main tool, its interest rate is more effective on demand. It works on demand. And we saw from most of 2021 that that's what Chair Powell was basically saying, like, we expect this to be transitory. This is not something that monetary policy should respond to. By the fall of 2021, when it was becoming clear that that was not the case, you start to see the Fed kind of shift. And actually Chair Powell by, by that fall was saying, okay, maybe it's time that we retire this transitory word.

[B]

I mean, it's become a word that's attracted a lot of attention that maybe is distracting from our message, which we want to be as clear as possible.

[C]

And I think the fact that the Fed is widely seen as having been late to raise interest rates because they didn't start hiking interest rates until March of 2022, that has had a lot of implications, right? It weighs on the Fed's credibility. Right? We rely on the central bank to help control inflation. And they got that one wrong, admittedly. They got that one wrong. And so it has been a ding on their credibility. I think also Americans, as we know, are really concerned about affordability. Inflation has been above target for five years now, basically. And we saw how big of a role the question of affordability and prices played in our politics. This was a big reason why President Trump was able to win the 2024 election, because Americans do remain so concerned, concerned with how prices have risen and inflation. And now when you think about what the Fed is dealing with, which is additional supply shocks that have come as a result of this year, the US War in Iran last year, the imposition of sweeping tariffs by President Trump, you see Fed policymakers being hesitant to say these rolling shocks are things that we can just look through, and I think that's in part because of the legacy of the pandemic. They got that wrong and they don't want to assume that inflation is going to be transitory again.

[B]

Coming up, Trump 2.0 why the president renewed his criticism of Jerome Powell and targeted another governor, and how these attacks affected the independence of the Federal Reserve.

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[C]

Oh, how didn't he? It's been really remarkable to watch over the last year.

[D]

So he either is incompetent or he's crooked.

[B]

He's too late.

[D]

Always too late. A little slow.

[C]

We just saw President Trump continue on social media to just really, really berate Jerome Powell, basically framing him as detrimental to the American public. But then, you know, in the spring and towards the middle of last year, things really started to escalate. We at Bloomberg and others reported that President Trump was close to firing Chair Powell or was considering trying to fire Chair Powell. And then we saw the president and his allies really start to focus in on this $2.5 billion renovation that the Fed is doing of its headquarters here in D.C. and Chair Powell went before the Senate Banking Committee and talked about that renovation and was pressed by lawmakers about why its costs have increased over the last couple of years. And President Trump and his allies seized on that testimony to ramp up scrutiny of this renovation project. And some of President Trump's allies also began to suggest that Chair Powell had lied during that testimony and that that could rise to the legal cause that President Trump would need to fire him. And we know now that the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation at the end of last year and then actually issued subpoenas to the Fed early this year. And those subpoenas really, I think, slipped Chair Powell into a resistance mode that we hadn't seen from him prior.

[B]

This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions or whether instead monetary policy will be directed at by political pressure or intimidation.

[C]

He got on video and he said, I'm basically not going to allow President Trump to bully me. If you've listened and followed Jay Powell for all these years, he just, you could tell he just never really wanted to go there. But these subpoenas were just so extraordinary that he kind of felt like he had to, to lay out this really forceful defense of Fed independence. So that's one side of it. And then all in the backdrop, we also have the case of Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who President Trump has actually tried to fire. So no president has ever before tried to fire a Fed governor. And so I think both of these cases really have huge implications for fed independence. The DoJ has now dropped this investigation of Chair Powell to clear the way for his successor to be confirmed by the Senate. But Chair Powell is still watching that situation closely because the DOJ has also kind of left it open as to whether or not they might reopen it. So how both these situations resolve will have big implications for whether the Fed is still viewed as some, as an institution with a high amount of independence, or whether President Trump has succeeded in pulling back some of that independence.

[B]

Kat, Jay Powell is going to stick around as a governor for a time to be determined. As all of this continues to unfold. I'm curious, sort of how you see this playing out in practice. How would a governor, former Chair Jay Powell, continuing to be on the board, play a role in shaping what the Federal Reserve does in the, in the months ahead?

[D]

Yeah, I think that's kind of the million dollar question. How is this going to work? The last time we saw this was in the late 40s, early 50s, when a chair stayed on. That's the only other time this has happened. So we don't really have a playbook for this chair. Powell has said that he will be largely out of the limelight. He is not trying to be any sort of shadow chair. He's not trying to play a leadership role behind the scenes. But I think whether that is what actually happens remains to be seen because this is an individual that has immense support among his colleagues. Right. We have heard many times this year from most of his colleagues how much they like working with him, how much they respect him. He really has done that through cultivating this culture of consensus building. That is how they have reached their decisions under him. And, you know, other Fed chairs kind of did the same thing. And you now have a Fed chair coming in, and Kevin Warsh that is coming in being very critical of how the Fed does a lot of things. You know, some on the outside wonder if that is having some sort of an impact already on current Fed officials. You know, are they less likely to listen to him, are they less likely to go along with, with what he wants to do because of that criticism? I mean, maybe the answer to that is no. And, and we've heard many Fed officials say that they're coming to this open minded. But, you know, I think just the fact that Powell has so much clout among the other Fed officials makes it easy to imagine a situation where if there is a lot of controversy or a lot of disappointment or anger about the new leadership, that they might kind of gravitate toward the old boss.

[C]

And David, I just want to point out that this awkward, weird situation that Kevin Borish as the new chair is walking into is completely the creation of the Trump administration. Right. Based on our reporting, like Chair Powell was fully prepared to leave. This is a man in his 70s. He's been at the Fed a long time. He has a family. He's dealt with so many crises over the last couple of years, like he was ready to just ride off into the sunset and say goodbye, but now he really feels like I have to stay here and make sure that things don't go off the rails. And it is the Trump administration that created the backdrop that has made him feel like he has no choice but to stay here and defend the institution.

[D]

Yeah. And I think also like the worth noting is the global implications of the Fed's ability to conduct monetary policy free from political pressure. You have literally the eyes of central banks and governments all over the world on the US Right now. I think there's a lot of nervousness about what it could mean if the world's most powerful central bank has to cede some of its independence. And you're also seeing some of these machinations at work in countries like Colombia, where you're seeing a lot of interference into the central bank and the central bank really fighting as well there to keep its independence. So it's a theme that has repercussions that extend far beyond the US as well.

[B]

the press conference that followed Jerome Powell's last Fed meeting as chair, he got a number of questions about his legacy. What did he think his legacy was? How's he thinking about his tenure at the Fed? And he really batted those down. He gave out his famous mulligan. Reporters who asked about that, how are you thinking about his legacy at this moment, where his time at the Fed isn't done yet, but he has moved on, or is ready to move on from being Fed chair?

[C]

One of the people we spoke to as we were writing this story said Fed chairs are usually judged in history by their performance on inflation. And if you judge Chair Powell on inflation, you could argue that he hasn't done the best, right? They had the transitory situation. He's leaving the chair position with inflation still above target. It will never return back to 2% on his watch. And so that's an important part of his legacy. But I think that because he is now viewed as this person who has stood up to President Trump and taken extraordinary steps to defend Fed independence and to make it clear to the American people how important Fed independence is, I think that is arguably going to be how he is most remembered.

[B]

This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gura. The show is hosted by me, Juan Ha and Sarah Holder. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Paddy Hirsch, Rachel Lewis, Christie, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, Alice Segura, Julia Weaver, Yang Yang and Taka Yasuzawa. To get more from the Big Take and unlimited access to all of bloomberg.com, subscribe [e-mail] podcastoffer. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

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