
Avoiding a persistent inflation problem will depend on the size of the effects, how long it takes for tariffs to affect prices and on keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored.

Hon. Jerome H. Powell on the impact of tariffs.

Speaker
Hon. Jerome H. Powell
Hon. Jerome H. Powell first took office as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 5, 2018, for a four-year term. He was reappointed to the office and sworn in for a second four-year term on May 23, 2022. Mr. Powell also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. Mr. Powell has served as a member of the Board of Governors since taking office on May 25, 2012, to fill an unexpired term. He was reappointed to the Board and sworn in on June 16, 2014, for a term ending January 31, 2028. Prior to his appointment to the Board, Mr. Powell was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where he focused on federal and state fiscal issues. From 1997 through 2005, Mr. Powell was a partner at The Carlyle Group. Mr. Powell served as an Assistant Secretary and as Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury under President George H.W. Bush, with responsibility for policy on financial institutions, the Treasury debt market, and related areas. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Mr. Powell worked as a lawyer and investment banker in New York City. In addition to service on corporate boards, he has served on the boards of charitable and educational institutions, including the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University and the Nature Conservancy of Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Mr. Powell was born in February 1953 in Washington, D.C. He received an AB in politics from Princeton University in 1975 and earned a law degree from Georgetown University in 1979. While at Georgetown, he was editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Journal.

Moderator
Dr. Raghuram Rajan
Raghuram Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School. He was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between 2013 and 2016, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements (2015-16) and Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (2003-2006). Dr. Rajan’s book Fault Lines (2010) won the Financial Times prize for best business book and his book The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State hold the Community Behind (2019) was a finalist for the award. His most recent book (December 2023) is Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity, with Rohit Lamba Dr. Rajan was the President of the American Finance Association (AFA). He received the AFA’s inaugural Fischer Black Prize in 2003, the Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics in 2013, Euromoney magazine’s Central Banker of the Year award in 2014, and The Banker magazine's Global Central Banker award in 2016. Dr. Rajan is Senior Economic Advisor to BDT&MSD, and on advisory boards to PIMCO, Andersen Tax, and RLUSD, as well as to the IMF Managing Director and the President of the New York Fed. He is Chairman of the Per Jacobsson Foundation.