Biden, Fed chief meet as inflation-fighting options dwindle

Focused on relentlessly rising prices, President Joe Biden plotted inflation-fighting strategy Tuesday with the chairman of the Federal Reserve, with the fate of the economy and his own political prospects increasingly dependent on the actions of the government’s central bank.

Biden hoped to demonstrate to voters that he was attuned to their worries about higher gasoline, grocery and other prices whiles still insisting an independent Fed will act free from political pressure.

Like Biden, the Fed wants to slow inflation without knocking the U.S. economy into recession, a highly sensitive mission that is to include increasing benchmark interest rates this summer. The president said he would not attempt to direct that course as some previous presidents have tried.

“My plan to address inflation starts with simple proposition: Respect the Fed, respect the Fed’s independence,” Biden said.

The sit-down was Biden’s latest effort to show his dedication to containing the 8.3% leap in consumer prices over the past year. Rising gas and food costs have angered many Americans heading into the midterm elections. It also represented something of a reversal by Biden as inflation weighs heavily on voters’ minds. The president asserted in April 2021 that he was “very fastidious about not talking” with the independent Fed.

Tuesday’s meeting was the first since Jerome Powell was renominated in November by Biden to lead the central bank and came two weeks after his confirmation for a second term by the Senate.