WASHINGTON, DC—As expected, President Trump on Thursday nominated Jerome Powell, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, to succeed Janet Yellen as the central bank's chair. Having hinted at the need for reform in the Fed, Trump instead tapped a one-time partner at the Carlyle Group who is expected to deliver little change from the course maintained by his predecessor.

“It doesn't represent any departure at all,” economist Hunter Lewis tells GlobeSt.com. “Perhaps if President Trump had re-nominated Janet Yellen, that would have represented 100% continuity, but this is like 99% continuity.”

Maintaining what in effect is an unbroken line appears to run counter what Trump had implied. “Certainly, he had been a critic of the Fed during the campaign,” says Lewis, author of 11 books including, most recently, Economics in Three Lessons and One Hundred Economic Laws.