Jay Powell

Wednesday

Richard M. Reinsch II

Trump should bring the Fed to heel

President Trump’s criticism of Jay Powell has increasingly triggered calls for the Federal Reserve’s independence. But those defending Powell’s autonomy are making ahistorical claims about the Fed’s relationship to the executive and legislative branches of government: the Fed has never been independent. The president appoints the Fed’s chairman. The bank enjoys broad authority to implement the policies necessary to achieve its mandates of stable prices, full employment and interest-rate stability, but these objectives are defined by Congress and could be altered by Congress. Congress created the Federal Reserve in 1913 and has amended the Federal Reserve Act more than 200 times. It could do so again.

jerome powell

Tuesday

Cockburn

Are you MAGA or in DRAG-A?

Trash talk Who gets to call themselves MAGA these days, anyway? Politico Playbook declared this weekend that “MAGA is whatever Trump decides it will be” – the administration’s go-to defense when the President does something the further-right side of his base doesn’t care for, such as dispatching military support to Ukraine, say, or running interference for the Ghost of Jeffrey Epstein. Heading into the midterms – and we’re past the halfway point of 2025, so we are heading into the midterms – Republican candidates up and down the country are already attempting to bill themselves as the most “MAGA” in the field, in hope of garnering a Trump endorsement that could see them win office.

nate morris maga drag-a

Thursday

Jacob Heilbrunn

Trump gets his Big, Beautiful Bill over the line

Forget Elon Musk. House Speaker Mike Johnson is President Trump’s new partner, delivering the victory that he needed to ensure the transformation of the 887-page mega-bill into mega-law, right on the cusp of July 4. The vote was close – 218-214 – but decisive. The internal opposition crumbled. The Democrats could only impede, not stymie, the passage of the bill.   When the Louisiana legislator replaced the luckless Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in October 2023, Republican diehards pledged that they would sink Johnson, too, should he deviate from conservative orthodoxy. But again and again, they have proven to be all hat and no cattle. Despite the bluster of the Ralph Normans and the Thomas Massies, the House has remained solidly behind Johnson and a fortiori Trump.

mike johnson

Wednesday

Oliver Wiseman

Biden catches a break on inflation

Things are looking up. Today began with some very good economic news in Washington: Labor Department data shows inflation falling to a two-year low. The consumer price index rose 3 percent in the twelve months to June. That is a steep fall from the 9.1 percent price rise in the twelve months to June 2022, and perhaps the clearest sign yet that the US is on course to tame inflation while avoiding a recession — the soft landing that Joe Biden, Jay Powell and every other policymaker in Washington has been praying for.   Core consumer prices increased by 0.2 percent in June, the smallest single-month increase since August 2021 and an indicator that the pressure on prices is easing.

biden inflation

Friday

Jacob Heilbrunn

Trump is pursuing Mugabe economics

Can Donald Trump weather the spate of bad news that’s coming his way? Trump remains enmeshed in a battle over his prediction that Alabama would be socked by Hurricane Dorian, but what could really upend his presidency is the new report that job creation was a measly 130,000 in August and that the manufacturing industry is taking a hit because of his trade war with China. True to form, Trump is trying to blame someone rather than himself.Last week, he claimed that American businesses are at fault. They’re 'badly run and weak', he claimed. An odd stance for a Republican president to adopt, for sure. Today, he went back to an old reliable, the Federal Reserve, in — what else?

economics

Friday

Jacob Heilbrunn

The ur-Trump has re-emerged at last

Is Donald Trump bonkers? In the past few days, the notion that Trump is not all there has been picking up steam. His references to what would amount to a divine mandate — 'I am the chosen one' — or eager embrace of his putative status as King of the Jews have prompted more than a little head shaking in the media. Perhaps the most vociferous member of the Trump-as-nutcase brigade is his aggrieved former aide Anthony Scaramucci who most recently likened the president to Rev. Jim Jones. Trump has reciprocated Scaramucci’s concern about his mental health by deeming him, in turn, a 'nut job.' But it is Trump’s actions today that have his detractors sounding fresh alarms. After Federal Reserve chairman Jerome H.

donald trump

Thursday

Cockburn

Powell orders media blackout for Fed staff

Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve Chairman, has banned any public appearances by any member of the Fed, Cockburn hears. Appearances at conferences have been canceled, all scheduled interviews have been abandoned and any comments on or off the record are outlawed. This unprecedented action is a reflection of two pressures. First, there are growing economic indicators that suggest the US is heading into a recession with the Dow plunging 800 points on Wednesday. Second, relations with the White House have reached a new low. President Trump has pinned the success of his presidency upon a strong economy and his qualifications as a businessman who understands the economy. If a recession takes hold, Trump believes his reputation will be destroyed and his chances of reelection dimmed.

jay powell fed