JPOW

JPOW”is Reddit’s Wallstreetbets way of referring to Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Jerome Powell was nominated by former US President Donald J. Trump and took over the role of chair in 2018, a position previously held by Janet Yellen.

The Chairman is also known throughout many related subreddits and social media platforms as “the savior of stonks” (with stonks basically meaning stocks).

JPOW’s role in achieving meme status

Back in early 2020, right at the very start of the Covid pandemic, markets started taking a dive worldwide as the impact of economies shutting down was starting to be felt little by little throughout the whole world. As the US economy greatly needed to be fueled, Jerome Powell stepped up and managed to reinforce investor confidence right back into the stock market.

Powell’s tactics led to his online celebrity status amongst forums and social media communities as little by little he (and his “money printer”) gained somewhat of a cult following online.

The origins of the meme

The “JPOW” meme is often paired with the saying “Money Printer Go Brrr” alluding to the federal reserve “printing money” as an effort to prevent any sort of economic downturn.

The original tweet was posted on March 2020 by user @femaleandlords:

Given the Chairman of the Federal Reserves’ responsibility to determine short-term U.S. monetary policy, it took no time until Jerome Powell was included in on the joke.