Warren: Fed chair ‘failed’ on monetary policy, regulation

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Sunday said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has “failed” on his monetary policy and regulation responsibilities as the country grapples with high inflation and issues with banks collapsing.

“Look, my views on Jay Powell are well-known at this point. He has had two jobs. One is to deal with monetary policy. One is to deal with regulation. He has failed at both,” Warren said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“I don’t think he should be chairman of the Federal Reserve. I have said it as publicly as I know how to say it. I’ve said it to everyone,” the senator added. 

Powell and the central bank he leads have been taking heat for hiking interest rates in an effort to tamp down high inflation, and have now come under fire after the abrupt collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and New York’s Signature Bank earlier this month, which in part was impacted by the rate hikes. 

“I think he’s failing in both jobs both as the oversight manager of these big banks, which is his job, and also what he’s doing with inflation,” Warren said of Powell.

Warren on Sunday said Powell has “a dual mandate” to deal with inflation and employment. 

“And what Chair Powell is trying to do — and he has said fairly explicitly is that they are trying to, in effect, slow down the economy so that — this is, by the Fed’s own estimate — 2 million people will lose their jobs. And I believe that is not what the chair of the Federal Reserve should be doing,” Warren said of the interest rate hikes. 

Former President Trump appointed Powell, who is a Republican, to lead the Fed, and he was reappointed by President Biden for another term.