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ALAN RECHTSCHAFFEN: Trump Trumps The Fed To Win Big
Last Friday, the Justice Department served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas related to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony regarding
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ALAN RECHTSCHAFFEN: Trump Trumps The Fed To Win Big
Last Friday, the Justice Department served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas related to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony regarding
The Real Question
The subpoenas have escalated this fight to DEFCON 1. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — a retiring Banking Committee Republican — is blocking Fed nominees until the legal mess is sorted. Markets are watching closely. Powell says he won’t resign.
But here’s the thing: while the President is consistently unorthodox in his approach, he has exposed a real problem. The Fed operates like a fourth branch of government—unelected and seemingly allergic to coordination with anyone. Its forecasts are routinely off. And its current leadership apparently believed that not meeting with the President for years was OK.
Powell declares he won’t bow to pressure. The Fed insists on its independence. But the real question isn’t whether the Fed stays independent—it’s whether a Fed that refuses to work with the President serves the American people better than one that actually works with our most powerful elected representative.
The President has raised the stakes and put the Fed’s relevance in the crosshairs. The results of this battle will impact jobs and affordability for decades to come. President Trump has made it clear – he will not back down until his vision for the economy becomes our reality for winning big.
Alan Rechtschaffen is senior lecturer of capital markets law at New York University, the author of “Capital Markets, Derivatives, and the Law,” and the upcoming self-help book “Trump Your Mind.” He is also a Trustee of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars.
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The reason we have the IRS is because we have the FED.