Fed Chair

What Is Fed Chair?

The Fed Chair is the head of the Federal Reserve, formally titled the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Chair is nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate, serving a four-year term in that role before reappointment or replacement. The Chair leads the FOMC's meetings and typically conducts the post-meeting press conference, making the position the public face of U.S. monetary policy. The modern title dates to the Banking Act of 1935; Marriner Eccles was the first to hold it, and the Fed's Washington, D.C. headquarters building is named after him.

Why It Matters

Although every FOMC member casts an equal vote, the Chair's influence over the agenda, communication, and consensus makes the role enormously important. The history of the office tracks the history of the economy: William McChesney Martin described the Fed's job as taking "away the punch bowl just as the party gets going"; Paul Volcker broke the high inflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s; Alan Greenspan warned of "irrational exuberance"; Ben Bernanke, a scholar of the Great Depression, steered the Fed through the 2008 crisis; and Janet Yellen became the first woman to chair the Fed before Jerome Powell, sworn in in 2018, succeeded her.

Test Your Knowledge

Questions on this topic from the EconRecall fact bank:

• Who was Fed Chair during the 2008 financial crisis?
  Ben Bernanke
• Who was the first woman to serve as Fed Chair?
  Janet Yellen
• Which Fed Chair is best known for aggressively raising rates to break the high inflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s?
  Paul Volcker