"...If [Fed Reserve Chair Jerome] Powell was going to sharply and repeatedly hike interest rates, he needed to pay very close attention to how this would affect bank balance sheets. Not only did he fail to do that; he was a prime mover behind the serial regulatory weakenings that allowed fast-growing regional banks like Silicon Valley Bank to speculate themselves into deep trouble.
"Now the Fed is in high damage control mode—control of the damage to the nation’s banking system and to Powell’s own rapidly declining reputation and influence in his own house. Three of the six current Fed governors are now Democrats appointed by President Biden—Michael Barr, the vice chair for supervision; Lisa Cook; and Philip Jefferson.
"Powell is desperately trying to keep control of the Fed’s internal investigation, to whitewash the Fed’s blunders and his own role. The other members of the Fed board should be less concerned about helping to save Powell’s neck and more about redeeming a badly failed institution." -- Robert Kuttner, writing in The American Prospect, on why Powell is (and deserves to be) "on the ropes" for his role in the various bank collapses recently.
