00:00I want to talk to you just quickly about Trump's firing, because you told me about the statistician there.
00:06But he's also now threatening to fire the Federal Reserve Governor, Lisa Cook, if she doesn't resign.
00:15I mean, where do we go from here and what's all the controversy?
00:19We've got about a minute, so let's go for it.
00:22I'll talk very quickly, because I think this is one of the biggest problems facing the Fed right now.
00:27And this is threats to its independence.
00:29Lisa Cook is a Fed governor.
00:31These are 14-year terms.
00:32She has tended to vote with Jerome Powell, so she has not wanted to cut rates.
00:38She has been accused by a close ally of Trump of mortgage fraud.
00:41We don't know whether these allegations are true.
00:45She hasn't said a great deal yet.
00:47Were she to resign, and I suspect that she probably in due course will be forced to resign, it gives Trump an opportunity to put a hand-picked successor in there.
00:58That would mean that two of the board's seven members, there are 12 people who vote on policy, there are seven governors, two of them will be hand-picked by Trump and will agitate for lower rates.
01:09And we also have two others that have kind of gone to the dark side and have supported aggressive rate cuts.
01:15That would be a majority of the governors supporting lower rates.
01:17This political meddling is a concern, and why markets are doing so well with this threat to the Fed's independence is beyond me.
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