By Nick Timiraos

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, speaking to students at Harvard University on Monday, offered a wry reminder to any economic policymaker who thinks they'd never have to use an at-times controversial tool of large-scale asset purchases, often referred to as "quantitative easing" or "QE" for short.

Powell said he himself assumed before becoming chair that he would never have to resort to QE. Then the pandemic hit, and the Fed opened the bond-buying floodgates-first to prevent a broader market meltdown and later to keep rates low as the pandemic threatened to keep unemployment at very elevated levels. "Man plans and God laughs," Powell said.

His comment carried an unmistakable subtext. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has criticized the central bank's past use of QE as excessive. Powell's response, without naming Bessent, was to note that no Treasury secretary has ever told the Fed to stop supporting the economy in a crisis. "Maybe that'll happen someday, but it hasn't happened yet," he said.

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March 30, 2026 13:30 ET (17:30 GMT)

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