First Black woman confirmed for Fed as central bank enters Biden era

The Fed is trying to create disinflationary intervention that doesn't cause the economy to go into a recession.

Biden's Fed has unprecedented diversity. The central bank will have two Black board members for the first time after the confirmation of Philip Jefferson, a former Fed economist who was approved unanimously by the Senate Banking Committee. There will be three women on the board.

Under Powell's leadership, the Fed has put greater emphasis on ensuring that as many Americans can be employed as possible, a policy that has drawn criticism from Republicans who say the central bank acted too late to curb spiking inflation by raising rates. Cook and Jefferson are both interested in the health of the labor market.

Republican complaints about the Fed and its research on race-related trends became a flashpoint for Cook, who has long explored the impact of racial injustice on the economy. Some GOP lawmakers questioned the nominee's qualifications for the job, a line of criticism that sparked a backlash from Democrats and some prominent economists who came to her defense.

The Fed chief has said that the Fed presents its own threat to American workers by cooling aggressive price spikes.

Powell and Brainard, along with the rest of the central bank's policymaking committee, have already kicked off a campaign of interest rate increases, and they will soon begin to shrink the Fed's massive asset holdings. Next week, the Fed's policymaking panel will meet.

When asked at a Wall Street Journal event how long it would take inflation to come back down to the Fed's 2 percent target, Brainard said he was very wary of making predictions.