Yes, Jay Powell is the compromise candidate for the Federal Reserve – but not a bad one at that

Perhaps we should be relieved that Donald Trump has made a dull appointment to succeed Janet Yellen as chairman of the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank. He might have picked another alt-right wacko or Kremlin stooge — or his Las Vegas buddy Phil Ruffin, the casino owner he allegedly thought of sending as envoy to China. But in fact he has chosen Jerome ‘Jay’ Powell, an identikit lawyer-turned-banker who has been called the candidate of ‘continuity’ and ‘compromise’ after a late run to beat frontrunner Kevin Warsh, a former Trump adviser with more aggressive opinions on the need for monetary tightening.

The most interesting facts about Powell are that (unlike recent Fed incumbents) he is not an economist but he is rich: one guess says he’s worth $112 million, some of it made when he worked for the private equity group Carlyle, which has been described (in Dan Briody’s book The Iron Triangle) as operating at the ‘murky intersection’ of Washington politics, national security and private capital.