Progressive Democrats on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to replace the Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell when his tenure ends.
Gatekeepers News reports that the tenure of Powell, a Republican, who was appointed as Fed chair by Donald Trump in 2017, will end in February 2022. There are speculations that Biden plans to reappoint him.
The left-wing Democrats, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, want Biden to appoint another replacement.
The lawmakers accused the central bank chief of not doing enough to tackle climate change or economic injustice.
In a statement, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Mondaire Jones and Jesús “Chuy” García said: “We urge President Biden to re-imagine a Federal Reserve focused on eliminating climate risk and advancing racial and economic justice.
“To move forward with a whole of government approach that eliminates climate risk while making our financial system safer, we need a Chair who is committed to these objectives.”
Trump in 2018 repeatedly criticised Powell and pressured him to cut interest rates. The former President also took offence when Powell cautioned about the economic risks of a trade war with China after the Trump administration imposed a series of trade tariffs on other nations.
In their statement, Ms Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues commended Powell for getting the Federal Reserve to do more to achieve full employment – the point at which anyone who needs a job has one.
However, they said the Fed, under his leadership, has taken “very little action to mitigate the risk climate change” poses to the US financial system.
In terms of its approach to the crisis, the lawmakers said the Fed had come bottom in a ranking of G20 central banks compiled by the UK campaign group Positive Money.
Powell has previously warned the climate crisis poses “profound challenges for the global economy and financial system”.
Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues maintained that the Fed under Powell had “substantially weakened” many of the reforms enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis regulating big banks.
This included capital and liquidity requirements, stress tests and the Volcker Rule, which limits how much of their everyday customers’ money they can invest in risky trading activities.
“Weakening financial regulations that were specifically created to prevent such a disaster from happening again, risks the livelihoods of Americans across the country,” the lawmakers said.
