WASHINGTON • Today, US Federal Reserve Board governor and former investment banker Jerome Powell takes over as head of the world's most powerful central bank.
The soft-spoken centrist was nominated by President Donald Trump in November as a largely uncontroversial pick whose monetary policy views are closely aligned with his predecessor Janet Yellen's.
His appointment as Fed chairman is being seen as a move likely to provide continuity in United States monetary policy with the economy growing now for nine years straight. Under Dr Yellen, the Fed was steering a steady course towards gradually higher interest rates and a smaller balance sheet.
Mr Powell has served on the Fed's board since 2012 and over time became supportive of the consensus forged by Dr Yellen for gradual interest-rate increases and a slow decrease in the asset holdings the Fed accumulated while fighting the financial crisis.
However, Mr Powell, 64, will have to deal with a debate brewing within the central bank about whether it needs to rethink its approach to inflation and whether the recent massive tax overhaul legislation will affect the US economy.
The new Fed chief must also decide how far to accommodate a push by the Trump administration to roll back some post-crisis financial regulations. His private-sector background is said to have appealed to Mr Trump when the President nominated him to be the head of the Federal Reserve. Mr Trump is said to have preferred business figures over those with PhDs.
Mr Powell, a Maryland native, avid cyclist and guitar hobbyist, is the first person without an advanced economics degree to hold the top Fed job since Mr William Miller in the late 1970s.
He comes armed with a law degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree in politics from Princeton University.
He spent time as a top banker on Wall Street and a dealmaker at private equity firm Carlyle Group. Reports peg his wealth at as much as US$55 million (S$72.6 million).
He has been a Fed governor since 2012, and over the past five years has burrowed deep into the nuts and bolts of central banking and schooled himself on broader monetary policy issues.
Some see his lack of an economics background as a good thing - if it means he will communicate in plain language.
Fed statements have become longer and more complicated over the past two decades.
A 2014 study by the St Louis Fed found that earlier US central bank monthly statements required the equivalent of only a ninth-grade reading level. Now you might need as much as three years of post-college education to understand them.
"The Fed definitely has a communication problem," said Mr Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Standish Mellon Asset Management and a former top economist at the Fed.
"A non-economist who can explain the bank's policy to Washington and the rest of the world would be a positive."
Mr Powell has a personality that veers towards consensus building. The Wall Street Journal has dubbed him "Mr Ordinary".
That, however, has made others worry as to whether he will be able to stand up to Wall Street.
For example, he probably takes a more benign view of large financial institutions than his predecessor, at least when it comes to regulation.
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG