Powell Styles Himself a Fed Chairman for the People

  • Fed chief trying to reach the public more in his speeches
  • Change comes just as the Fed tiptoes toward a PR headache
Powell speaks about the central bank’s plan to hold news conference after every FOMC meeting.(Source: Bloomberg)
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Alan Greenspan famously said he’d mastered the art of mumbling “with great incoherence” as Federal Reserve chairman. Jerome Powell is attempting the opposite approach.

“Because monetary policy affects everyone, I want to start with a plain English summary of how the economy is doing, what my colleagues and I at the Federal Reserve are trying to do and why,” Powell, who took the helm at the U.S. central bank in February, said at the outset of his June post-meeting press conference on Wednesday.