Mohamed El Elian, president of Cambridge Queens University, will speak at a panel discussion at the International Monetary Fund headquarters at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meeting held in Washington, DC on October 13, 2022.
James Lawler Duggan | Reuters
On Tuesday, Mohamed El Elian called on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to voluntarily abandon his position to ensure central bank independence, calling for Chief Economic Advisor. Allianz He was one of the first notable economists to publicly take such a position.
“If Chairman Powell’s purpose is to protect the Fed’s operational autonomy (which I think is important), he should resign,” El Elian said in a post on X’s morning.
Ellian, president of Queen’s College at Cambridge University, also said he was aware that his views were not in line with what Powell saw as a Wall Street consensus, hoping to serve the rest of his term, ending in May 2026.
However, El Elian said Powell’s resignation would be better than the current scenario. In this scenario, the Fed said it faces a “swelling threat” to independence. El Elian said these threats are likely to increase only if Powell remains in the stool he is bred.
El Eliaan referenced Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent’s statement that the Fed had suffered from “mission creep” in areas other than its core monetary policy responsibility. Bessent told CNBC on Monday that “FRED as a whole” should be reviewed.
The statement comes as President Donald Trump and his advisers stepped up attacks on Powell after December on the federal decision to stabilize interest rates. Powell said Trump’s plans for sudden tariffs will create economic uncertainty and push the banks to not change fees while they await development.
