TOKYO – Asian policymakers have a Jerome Powell dilemma on their hands. And it could be a bigger one than they realize.
Though the region has enormous stakes riding on US President Joe Biden’s policy mix, it’s Chairman Powell’s decisions at the Federal Reserve that will have the greatest impact on Asia in 2022 and beyond.
That is, assuming Powell gets another term as the globe’s most potent central banker.
Powell’s term expires in February and Biden is under growing pressure from Democratic Party progressives to name a more activist Fed head. That should worry a region that holds the most US dollars – the very same region that is most affected by excess US liquidity sloshing around the globe.