Height matters?

Apart from traditional data indicators such as unemployment, inflation and productivity, economists could now rely on a quirky parameter — the height of the US Fed chair — to study the trajectory of monetary policy. In the 1980s when 6ft-7inch Paul Volcker was the chair, the Fed rate saw a surge. 

Thereon, the Fed chair’s height and the Fed rates have been coming down — from Alan Greenspan to Janet Yellen. For the first time since Volcker, the incoming Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s height is more than his predecessor’s. Coincidentally, this has happened when the rate trajectory is on the way up.