Powell Becoming Fed Chief as Economy Starts to Show Strain
Mr. Carpenter said the only time that he had seen Mr. Powell show irritation was when
he persisted in addressing Mr. Powell as “Governor Powell” rather than “Jay.”
John Dugan, a longtime friend who worked for Mr. Powell at Treasury, said Mr. Powell’s success owed much to playing well with others.
Mr. Powell “was impressive to me because he thought clearly
and he didn’t jump to conclusions,” said Deborah A. Perelmuter, then the head of the domestic trading desk at the New York Fed, who watched Mr. Powell hammer together a consensus on the necessary changes — including the replacement of paper slips with electronic bidding.
“I worry not at all,” said Seth Carpenter, who worked with Mr. Powell at the Fed and is now the chief United States economist at UBS.
In the fall of 1991, Mr. Powell, then an assistant Treasury secretary, was summoned before Congress to explain how the government
had failed to prevent an elaborate scheme by a bond trader at Salomon Brothers to corner the market in some Treasury securities.
He said that Mr. Powell, in his early days at the Fed, would pull staff members aside after meetings with long lists of questions.
