Powell marks one year as Federal Reserve chairman

Bloomberg

Jerome Powell this week marks his first year as chairman as the Federal Reserve under pressure to deliver on the commitment of his opening day to explain “what we are doing and why we are doing it.”
Powell hosts a town hall meeting with educators in Washington on Wednesday, a day after he celebrates his anniversary. He does so after a year which witnessed four rate hikes and tweets from President Donald Trump. It ended with policy makers delighting markets by signalling they may not tighten monetary policy again for a while.
The February 6 appearance — which will be live streamed to the public who will also be able to join the discussion via social media — hands Powell a chance to flesh out his reasoning for the dovish turn amid questions over what necessitated such a dramatic shift.
“Monetary policy makers may have been spooked by economic and financial developments at their first meeting of the year, but the labour market remains on very sound footing,” said Carl Riccadonna, chief US Economist at Bloomberg Economics. “Policy makers will be satisfied to let the data do the heavy lifting, rather than Fed communications, in terms of convincing market participants of the need for further action.”
Powell isn’t alone in speaking. Loretta Mester of the Cleveland Fed is scheduled for Monday and Vice Chairmen Randal Quarles and Richard Clarida speak on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.