Trump nominates Powell to be next Fed chairman

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump tapped Jerome Powell on Thursday to replace Janet Yellen as Fed chair when her term ends in February, choosing a moderate member of the Fed’s board who has backed Yellen’s cautious approach to interest rate hikes.

Powell, 64, is seen as a safe pick whose selection will likely assure investors hoping for continuity at the central bank. Some analysts see Powell, though, as more inclined than Yellen to ease financial regulations and possibly to favor a faster pace of rate increases.

Trump made the announcement in a Rose Garden ceremony with Powell standing beside him. He said Powell had earned the “respect and admiration of his colleagues” in his five years on the Fed’s board.

The president also praised Yellen, the first woman to lead the Fed, whom he decided not to nominate for a second term. He called her a “wonderful woman who has done a terrific job.” In a departure from previous announcements of new Fed chairs, Yellen was not in attendance Thursday.

Powell himself said it had been a privilege to serve under Yellen and her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, and said he’d do all he could to meet the Fed’s dual mandates of stable prices and maximum employment.

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University-Channel Islands, suggested that the new chairman would likely deviate little from Yellen’s policy leadership if the economy performs as expected.

“Mr. Powell could be considered a clone of Janet Yellen in a positive sense,” Sohn said. “He will continue the same cautious, gradualist policy in setting interest rates that she did.”