By and
It’s all on Jerome Powell. That’s the attitude this summer as voters, lawmakers and policy makers look to the Federal Reserve chairman to restore America’s economy.
American faith in the Fed chairman is based on a kind of national fairy tale about the 1970s. Inflation, a mystery threat, reared its head. Fed chairman after chairman jousted and failed to slay the inflation dragon—or restore growth. The siege acquired a name: stagflation. Finally, a decade in, a feistier knight emerged, Paul Volcker. After more jousting, Tall Paul vanquished the beast. Eventually, prosperity ensued.
