U.S. Senate approves Powell for second term as Fed Chairman

The US Senate voted overwhelmingly to retain Jerome Powell's candidacy as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRS) and extend his powers for a second four-year term.

Powell's candidacy for the position of head of the Fed was nominated in November last year, but the process of approving candidates for vacant positions at the Fed was somewhat delayed. Powell's first term as chairman of the Federal Reserve ended on February 5, and from that moment he was acting head of the Fed. Previously, Powell had been a member of the Fed's Board of Governors since 2012.

At the end of April, the Senate also approved several new members of the Fed's Board of Governors. Leil Brainard became the new vice-chairman of the federal agency, and Lisa Cook, an economics professor, became the first black woman to join the board of the Fed. In addition to Cook, the Board of Governors was replenished with another black counselor – Philip Jefferson, also a professor of Economics, was approved for the post by a majority of votes.

Jerome Powell intends to continue to fight high inflation in the United States (8.3% in April). Under his leadership, the Fed has raised its key interest rate twice in recent months: in March by 0.25 percentage points, and last week by 0.5 points. Thus, the key interest rate is now in the range of 0.75%-1.0%. 

Powell stressed in his speech yesterday that the Federal Reserve intends to act decisively to return US inflation to the 2% target. Even if it creates problems for the economy in the short term.