{"id":122435,"date":"2021-10-06T01:40:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T01:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=122435"},"modified":"2021-10-06T01:40:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T01:40:25","slug":"fed-chief-has-bidens-confidence-but-no-decision-on-renomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/fed-chief-has-bidens-confidence-but-no-decision-on-renomination\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed chief has Biden's confidence, but no decision on renomination"},"content":{"rendered":"
(Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he has confidence in Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after an influential senator in his party\u2019s progressive wing stepped up her critique of the central bank chief and raised questions about his leadership.<\/p> Powell \u201cposes a danger to our economy and that\u2019s why I oppose him for renomination,\u201d Senator Elizabeth Warren told CNBC on Tuesday, citing what she sees as his overly lax approach to bank oversight as well as his handling of possible investment trading improprieties by fellow Fed policymakers.<\/p>\n Last week, Warren had called Powell a \u201cdangerous man\u201d to lead the central bank.<\/p>\n Asked whether he had confidence in Powell after investment trades by two Fed officials raised questions, Biden said: \u201cWell, thus far yes, but I\u2019m catching up on some of these assertions.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden spoke to reporters in Lansing, Michigan, on Tuesday. Earlier, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about Warren\u2019s comments, told reporters aboard Air Force One: \u201cYes, he does have confidence in … Powell at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Two Fed policymakers have resigned following disclosures of their investment trades, and Powell has initiated a broad review here of the central bank’s ethics policies and asked the Fed’s watchdog to investigate the trading at issue. [nL1N2QT0ZZ]<\/p>\n With about four months left in Powell\u2019s four-year term, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the decision to renominate him is up to the president \u201cand the president hasn\u2019t yet made that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n In doing so, she said in a CNBC interview, \u201cHe will talk to many people and consider a wide range of evidence and opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n In August, Bloomberg reported that Yellen had told senior White House advisers that she backed Powell for a second term.<\/p>\n First appointed as Fed chair by Republican former President Donald Trump, Powell\u2019s current term at the helm expires in February.<\/p>\n \u2018I TRUST THE FED\u2019<\/p>\n Warren, a member of the Senate banking committee that oversees the Fed, asked who she would support after publicly coming out against Powell\u2019s renomination last week, declined to discuss \u201cprivate conversations\u201d with the White House.<\/p>\n Senator Jon Tester\u2019s support for a second Powell term as chair remained unchanged, a spokesperson for the centrist Democrat confirmed in an email on Tuesday. Tester is also a member of the banking committee.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, several Republican senators including Richard Shelby have indicated their support for Powell and their disinclination to support Fed Governor Lael Brainard, seen as the most likely alternative nominee to Powell.<\/p>\n Yellen was also asked if she thought the Fed had made the right decisions regarding the economy, especially given the unexpectedly high inflation this year that has a number of critics second-guessing the Fed\u2019s loose policy stance.<\/p>\n \u201cI trust the Fed to make the right decisions,\u201d Yellen, who served one term as Fed chair immediately before Powell, told CNBC.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know we have been hit by an incredibly unusual shot. On the one hand, we\u2019re all almost 6 million jobs short of where we were before the pandemic, which means a lot of people who still need jobs. On the other hand, many firms are finding it difficult to hire,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had extraordinary shifts in the pattern of demand … and I know the Fed is trying to sort through the implications of that – supply bottlenecks have developed that have caused inflation. I believe that they\u2019re transitory, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll go away over the next several months.\u201d<\/p>\n