Kohn dismissed suggestions that he and other senior staff members were the true power at the Fed.
"I don't recognize the caricature of the powerful Fed staff members, the barons who dictate policy to board members," he said. "That just has never happened, at least while I've been in a position to observe what's happening. Board members have their own views. They can and do ask us from time to time, `What would you do in this situation?' But it's always very clear in the end who's making the decision, which is appropriate legally and constitutionally."
Current and former board members agreed. But they said Kohn was far more than a number-cruncher. "It's not just facts, but a judgment as to why the facts are what they are," Greenspan said. "As a consequence, he has a fairly significant influence because we trust his judgment. I've been working with him for 14 years, and his judgment has stood up against reality remarkably well."
Kohn has two grown children and a grandson, and his wife, Gail, runs a retirement community in Virginia.
He grew up near Philadelphia, finished working on his doctorate in economics at the University of Michigan in 1969 and started his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City at the beginning of 1970.
He moved to the Fed in 1975, and has worked his way up, enjoying the combination of an intellectual challenge equal to that in any academic institution and the ultimate real-world challenge for any economist.
"If you are interested in making macroeconomic policy and helping to improve this economy, to make it work as well as it can," he said, "there is no more relevant place than the Federal Reserve system."
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