00:00Well, it's a topic we could speak for for hours, and my guess is we have about two minutes.
00:05So, number one, people should not confuse Federal Reserve independence with monetary policy independence.
00:12The Fed has so many different other responsibilities, and I would argue in many cases the Fed has politicized itself,
00:21particularly when Chairman Powell becomes the greatest cheerleader for a fiscal response during the COVID crisis.
00:30When he had the Federal Reserve embrace ESG, regardless of what you think about that, it is not central to monetary policy.
00:38And so I think, number one, the president has challenged monetary policy independence, but the Fed itself has challenged monetary policy independence.
00:49So it's really up to Congress.
00:51If you look at the Constitution and the rule of law is foundational to our economic growth, it's Congress that has the responsibility to coin money and regulate the value thereof.
01:04Congress has been negligent.
01:06I think for us to continue forward, to have independent monetary policy, independent from short-term political interests, two-year election cycles, which I do think is important policy,
01:20Congress is going to have to step back in and put certain guardrails, and if not monetary policy guidance and rules to keep that independence.
01:30But what the president is trying to do, we don't know what removal for cause means, but whatever it means, I don't think it means what the president is trying to do.
01:41And I think this is a very dangerous precedent that would be set if he's able to do this.
01:49And certainly, I don't know, I don't see any due process with respect to federal governor Cook, who, if I was president, probably would have never appointed her in the first place, but that's beside the point.
02:01This is exactly the reason people wanted monetary policy independence, so that the executive could not manipulate, you know, the short-term policy rate.
02:12This is exactly the reason people wanted to do this, so that the executive could not manipulate, you know, the short-term policy rate.
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