Who Has More Power? Jerome or Joe?
Jerome Powell has complete authority over Joe Biden regarding interest rates and fighting inflation. If he didn't, we would be in a way worse situation.
Take what's happening now as an example. If Biden were the one raising interest rates and crashing the economy, he would lose lots of votes, so he never would.
But Jerome is doing it, so Biden can still get away with tweeting nonsense and getting more votes, as explained in yesterday's post. Separating themselves allows Joe to save face by blaming things on Jerome if things get bad, even though he knows Jerome is right.
Jerome is openly explaining he is causing a self-induced recession in the economy or inflation will remain stagnant for too long. In other words, if he doesn't cause a recession or depression, inflation will be high forever.
Today he reminded us that Joe has no power over him. The independence of the Central Bank is necessary, or else the President at the time will want to do what's popular for votes, not improve the longevity of the economy. They would rather bandage it for more votes short term.
Joe can't tell Jerome what to do. Jerome needs to be able to cause recessions in a time of inflation, or else inflation will stay high forever.
Therefore, when it comes to monetary policies, Jerome has more power.