In 2007, he served as a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, bringing his District's perspective to policy discussions in Washington.

From 1985 until his appointment to the St. Louis Bank, Poole was an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and a member of the Shadow Open Market Committee.

He was inducted into The Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2005,[4] and presented with the Adam Smith Award by the National Association for Business Economics in 2006.

"[5] The common and preferred equity shares of both GSEs declined sharply following Poole's comments, which prompted several Congressmembers, the OFHEO regulator, the Treasury Secretary, and President George W. Bush to make comments that were seen as supportive to the GSEs in order to stem fears that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would require a government bailout.

In a major article in April 2009 about Obama administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his role in the national and global financial crisis, William Poole was reported to have said that the Fed, by effectively creating money out of thin air, not only runs the risk of 'massive inflation' but has also done an end-run around congressional power to control spending.

The article reported that, "[a]s the Fed became the biggest vehicle for the bailout, its balance sheet more than doubled, from $900 billion in October 2007 to more than $2 trillion today.