By French Hill and Amity Shlaes

It’s all on Jerome Powell. That’s the perspective this summer season as voters, lawmakers and coverage makers look to the Federal Reserve chairman to revive America’s financial system.

American religion within the Fed chairman is predicated on a sort of nationwide fairy story in regards to the Nineteen Seventies. Inflation, a thriller risk, reared its head. Fed chairman after chairman jousted and didn’t slay the inflation dragon—or restore progress. The siege acquired a reputation: stagflation. Lastly, a decade in, a feistier knight emerged, Paul Volcker. After extra jousting, Tall Paul vanquished the beast. Finally, prosperity ensued.