This is Washington Edition, the newsletter about money, power and politics in the nation’s capital. Today, economics enterprise reporter Rich Miller looks at how a jump in bond yields may shape comments by Fed chief Jerome Powell. Sign up here and follow us at @bpolitics. Email our editors here.
Whenever a lawmaker asks Jerome Powell to weigh in on a pet project or proposal, the Federal Reserve chairman demurs. The central bank “needs to stay in its lane,” he says. Behind the reticence: Powell wants to avoid giving a highly partisan Congress any excuse to question the Fed’s political independence.