Transcript: NPR's Full Interview With Fed Chairman Jerome Powell
Steve Inskeep: Jerome Powell is on the line. He is the chair of the Federal Reserve Board charged with helping to manage the world's largest economy. One year ago, the Fed was effectively printing enormous amounts of money, unprecedented amounts, creating trillions of dollars to help avoid economic collapse in the early stages of the pandemic. Now things look different and the Fed recently upgraded its economic forecast. Jay Powell rarely does interviews, but has continued a trend at the Fed toward greater transparency. And he's back on the program. Mr. Powell, welcome.
Jerome Powell: Thanks, Steve. Great to be with you.
What caused you to think that 2021 is going to be even stronger than you'd previously thought?
You know, in a nutshell, it's a combination of better developments on COVID, particularly the vaccines and also economic support from Congress. That's really what's driving it. We've seen something like 85 million Americans have now had at least one shot. Daily shots are running at two and a half million. And that's going to enable us to reopen the economy sooner than might have been expected. And then the second thing, of course, is Congress has significant support for economic activity, which will
