Fed Chair Powell and Mnuchin collaboration cooled in December

(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke less frequently with outgoing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in December than in any month since the coronavirus crisis began, Powell’s calendar published on Friday shows.

The drop in interactions followed Mnuchin’s decision in November to pull the plug on many of the Fed’s emergency lending facilities they had jointly set up earlier in the year.

Their close collaboration peaked in April, when Powell’s calendar shows 21 meetings between the two. In December, they had four phone calls, including one for just 10 minutes. During 2019 they averaged about three meetings a month.

Powell had wanted to keep the emergency lending programs open to backstop an increasingly weaker-looking recovery. Mnuchin said Congress had intended for them to sunset at year’s end, and demanded the return of the money.

Even as he interacted less with Mnuchin, Powell was preparing for work with Mnuchin’s successor amid resurgent infections and the biggest drop in employment since the spring. He spoke twice with members of the incoming Biden administration’s transition team on the economy, headed by Gary Gensler.

Gensler is Biden’s pick to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. The calendar does not show any meetings with Janet Yellen, Powell’s predecessor as Fed chief who was confirmed last month as Treasury secretary.

During the month Powell also met with Democratic and Republican members of Congress as they debated a fiscal package that Powell had long said the economy needed.

Ultimately the $892 billion bill passed Congress with bipartisan support on Dec. 21.

The Fed chair has made outreach to senators and members of Congress a key aspect of his tenure.

Powell’s calendar lists only dates, times and in some cases locations for meetings, and does not give details on what was discussed.