00:00Let's turn to the Federal Reserve. Traders looking ahead to the first central bank decision of the year.
00:05The biggest now to discuss is Bloomberg's Ender-Karen. Ender, welcome to the program. This one with some additional...
00:10...spice potentially in the news conference, giving Chairman Powell's more assertive posture towards the...
00:15White House. Indeed, it's got to be a lot of policy and a lot of politics, John.
00:20You know, on the policy side, as you know well, they're not expected to move, but still a lot of interest around...
00:25...and any fresh commentary on are they any closer to the neutral rate, for example, and where are...
00:30...they now in the labour market, and a hint of confidence that they think the labour market may have stabilised.
00:34But really, it's on...
00:35...the political side, where all the folks will be in that press conference, given the...
00:40...department of Justice subpoenas on the Fed since the last Fed meeting, Chair Powell will be asked about it.
00:45You'll be expected to comment. You probably won't dive too deep into the legal side of that, but...
00:50...it will be interesting to see whether or not he doubles down on his broader commentary around this being an attack on the...
00:55...independence of the Federal Reserve. So, like I say, lots of policy and politics, but I think more interesting...
01:00...the politics this week.
01:01Well, Ender, let's stay on the politics and the process. You're tracking the horse race, I'm sure...
01:05...who's in front, who's behind, with regards to the race to replace Chairman Powell. Now...
01:10...and Anne-Marie and I were talking to Senator Tillis in the last week or so. Do you think people are underestimating...
01:15...just how long this could actually take to get that person, whoever it might be...
01:20...nominated and confirmed down in Washington, D.C.?
01:23I think that's a real...
01:25...complication. John, it's not a complication many people saw at the start of the year. I mean, to your point...
01:30...no matter which name the President nominates, whenever that comes and they've said it's coming soon...
01:35...and our colleagues in the White House have been reporting that...
01:37...you know, BlackRock's Rick Reader certainly seems to have gone ahead...
01:40...out of the pack at the moment, but whichever name comes out of that pack...
01:43...they are going to have to somehow...
01:45...get through the Senate confirmation process, and as you mentioned, Senator Tillis has said...
01:50...he will not budge, he will not approve any Fed nominee until this DOJ...
01:55...threat against the Fed is fully resolved, and of course that begs the question...
01:58...what does fully resolved mean?
02:00...when do we get to that point? How do we get to that point?
02:02...and of course there's a whole other dynamic going on in the background then...
02:05...as well around the Chair Powell stay in that committee, keep his seat there...
02:08...what would that mean for Governor Mayeron...
02:10...for example, so even though we expect to get a headline announcement on a new Fed...
02:15...at some point soon, there's going to be a lot of pieces of the Jigsaw in the background...
02:19...that still haven't been put in...
02:20...and there's going to be a lot that has to be worked out on this, John.
02:22Andrew, appreciate it. Andrew Karen down in Washington...
02:25...and Mary, this is so much messier than it needed to be.
02:28And if you know that the Senate...
02:30...is going to be a potential hurdle and they're not going to budge until the DOJ...
02:35...investigation is wrapped up, then potentially why would you make the announcement so soon...
02:39...which is why...
02:40...the President keeps saying a week, two weeks...
02:42...we've been saying that literally for months...
02:44...which is why...
02:45...I think potentially this can drag on for a lot longer than this administration was expecting...
02:50...you have to think the Treasury Secretary is pulling out his hair...
02:52...because this was supposed to be swift.
02:53...
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