Powell 的任期以剧烈政策波动开场。2018年他加息4次，之后经济复苏、失业率降至4%以下并持续下滑。2020年推出的平均通胀框架立即遭遇 Covid 冲击。2020年3月，约有2200万个工作职位消失，失业率重回1930年代以来最高水准，美联储将利率降至0%，并透过市场操作加入约700 billion美元（约7×10^11）的史无前例流动性支撑。国会再配合大约5 trillion美元（约5,000 billion美元）的财政援助。疫情衰退约持续两个月；到2021年底失业率再度低于4%，但因解封需求遭遇供应瓶颈与累积节俭储蓄，通胀却加速。
通胀短暂回落后又加速升至四十年高位。至2022年3月，俄乌战争对粮食与能源的冲击后，美联储启动紧缩，到年底政策利率上调4.25个百分点，是 Volcker 之后最剧烈的一次收紧。通胀此后虽未伴随大规模失业激增而回落，但仍持续高于2%，并在2025年关税与2026年 Iran战争影响中再现。Powell 亦处理2023年区域性银行危机（Silicon Valley Bank与另外两家重大机构倒闭）、包括 Governor Adriana Kugler 辞职的伦理事件，以及因总部改建费用（起初列为2.5 billion美元，即2,500 million）引发的 DOJ 调查。尽管该调查在参议院阻挠其接替人选后被暂停，仍可能再开启，因此 Powell 表示将以理事身分留任至2028年1月，以维持独立性。
In January, Jerome Powell’s two-minute Sunday video confronting Donald Trump’s administration became defining after DOJ subpoenas came during pressure for lower rates. Powell said criminal-threat charges came from the Fed making policy on economic judgment instead of presidential preference. He leaves on May 15, yet has spent five straight years with inflation above the Fed’s 2% target, the biggest weakness in his record. He and defenders argue that under Trump’s concentration of executive power, central-bank independence is the only shield against political interference in macro policy, and Janet Yellen said this defense may matter more than his inflation record.
Powell’s tenure opened with sharp policy swings: in 2018 he raised rates four times, then unemployment dropped below 4% and kept falling. The average-inflation framework launched in 2020 met Covid immediately. In March 2020, 22 million jobs disappeared, unemployment hit the highest since the 1930s, and the Fed cut rates to zero, adding about $700 billion (7×10^11) in liquidity via market support. Congress added roughly $5 trillion ($5,000 billion) in fiscal aid. The pandemic recession lasted about two months; by end-2021 unemployment was again below 4%, while inflation accelerated as reopening demand met supply bottlenecks and savings.
Inflation briefly cooled, then accelerated to forty-year highs. By March 2022, after the Russia-Ukraine food-and-energy shock, the Fed began tightening, raising the policy rate by 4.25 percentage points by year-end, the sharpest post-Volcker move. Inflation later came down without a major unemployment spike, yet stayed above 2% and resurfaced with 2025 tariffs and 2026 Iran-war effects. Powell also handled a 2023 regional bank crisis (Silicon Valley Bank and two other major failures), ethics scandals including Governor Adriana Kugler’s resignation, and a DOJ probe triggered by a renovation-cost dispute stated at $2.5 billion (2,500 million). Though paused after Senate resistance to his replacement, it could reopen, so Powell says he will stay governor until Jan 2028 to preserve independence.