As federal agencies prepare to hand the keys over to President Donald Trump's second administration, one top official isn't worried about losing his job: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Speaking at the New York Times Dealbook Conference Wednesday, Powell rebuffed suggestions that the new Trump administration will influence the Fed's policy decisions or that the president-elect could have him removed as its leader.

As far back as his first administration, Trump threatened to fire Powell and recently suggested the president should take a direct role in setting the Fed's monetary policy. Both measures would chip away at the central bank's image as stewards of the economy who keep out of the political fray.

What Are the Rules Around Fed Independence?

By law, the president appoints the chair of the Federal Reserve System to serve a four-year term and cannot fire them without good cause. Trump appointed Powell in 2018, and Joe Biden appointed him to a second term that began in 2022. Fed officials contend that the central bank's insulation from politics is 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:important for its credibility and, hence, its ability to keep inflation under control while preventing the job market from collapsing.

"We're supposed to achieve maximum employment and price stability for the benefit of all Americans and keep out of p♏olitics completely," Powell said. "I think there is very, very broad support for that set of ideas in Congress, in both political parties, on both sides of the Hill, and that's what really matters. It's the law of the land. And I'm not concerned that there's some risk that we would lose our statutory independence, because I do think that that those set of ideas are strongly believed by people."

Powell also swatted down another suggestion by Trump's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Treasury Secretary nominee, Scott Bessen💦t.

In an October Barron's Magazine interview, Bessent said the president could nominate the next Fed chair early, creating a "shadow Fed chair" whose pronouncements on monetary policy would carry more weight in financial markets than the current chair's, as investors take their cues from the Fed's forward guidance.

Powell dismissed the possibility of such a move,

 "I don't think that's on the table at all," he said. "There's a there's a set of institutional relationships between the Fed and every administration. I fully expect that we'll have the same general kinds of relationships."