Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in his early days on the U.S. central bank’s board of governors, argued frequently and forcefully for an end to the bond purchases undertaken to support the recovery from the financial crisis, transcripts of policy meetings from 2013 released on Friday showed. Powell, who joined the board in May 2012 when Ben Bernanke was Fed chief, advocated in January 2013 for a plan to taper bond purchases, “ending them before year-end, whether or not we see a substantial improvement in the labor market,” according to the transcript from that month’s meeting of policymakers. The Fed did ... (full story)