President Biden met with Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, at the White House on Tuesday, as part of an effort to both sell Americans on a brightening view of the economy and reassure consumers that leaders in Washington are hard at work to slow rapidly rising prices.
White House officials cast the visit as a chance for Mr. Biden, who nominated Mr. Powell for a second term as Fed chair late last year, to congratulate him on his recent Senate confirmation. It was also the start of a monthlong attempt to convince the public that inflation is coming under control and that the economy is performing far better than Mr. Biden’s polling numbers would suggest.
Speaking to reporters at the start of the meeting, Mr. Biden reiterated that fighting inflation was his top economic priority and that he would not interfere with the Fed as it tried to tame rising prices.
That fight, Mr. Biden said, “starts with a simple proposition:…
