Fed ethics inquiry clears Powell and Clarida trades

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s inspector general concluded that financial trades made several years ago by Chair Jerome Powell and Richard Clarida, then the vice chair, did not violate any laws or ethics rules. Inspector General Mark Bialek said in a July 11 letter, released Thursday, that his office found that Clarida failed to report four trades in 2019 and 2020 and that Powell’s family trust made five trades in December 2019 just before a Fed policymaking meeting, when senior officials are supposed to refrain from trading. Yet Powell’s trades and Clarida’s omissions, Bialek concluded, broke no ethics rules or regulations.