00:00I think that that is a big, big disappointment. I would have expected more from him, to be very
00:04honest. And I'm a guy that liked him. I'm a guy that would have reappointed him. And I think this
00:09is a big disappointment that I've seen from him. Jim, do you think that it has longer term
00:13ramifications for the institution based on the fact that he is saying he does think that this
00:19is an independent institution, a committee, but does want to avoid some of the attacks that he
00:24says are battering the institution? Mariner Eccles is the only other Fed chairman that stayed on in
00:30the late 1940s. And his memoirs say that he stayed on because he saw with Bretton Woods and with the
00:36World Bank and the IMF in the post-World War II period, change was coming. And he wanted to
00:41marshal the world through those changes. It seems like what Chairman Powell is saying is,
00:46we're 80 years later and change is coming. And I want to stand in the doorway and prevent those
00:50changes. He said that he wants to see a more traditional move back to the Fed. He wants to
00:56see the Fed institution remain the way it is and not evolve. Now, as far as independence goes,
01:01I think we've solved the independence problem with the vote today, 8-4. We have 12 independent voters.
01:09The chairman is one of those voters. That is how you're going to get a truly independent Fed.
01:15The chairman cannot dictate the policy like he has for the last 40 years.
01:20He needs six other people to agree with him in order to get that policy across.
01:25What's going to happen if we continue to have these dissents? I'll remind you last year,
01:29the Bank of England had a 4-4-1 vote. If we get to a 6-6 vote with this
01:33Fed, we're already at 8-4.
01:35That gives Chairman Powell all the power to decide what the policy is going to be,
01:39even though he said he's not going to give any speeches and he's going to remain in the background.
01:44Or is he saying that he will just do whatever Chairman Walsh tells him to do,
01:49and that's the way he's going to vote, and he's not going to vote independently?
01:51So there's a big problem that he needs to define and try to explain, and he didn't at this press
01:58conference.
01:58Jim, I look at this simplistically. I got oil at 1-1961,
02:03and this announcement that I saw on the Bloomberg that we're leaving an aircraft carrier from the Middle East,
02:08that Gerald Ford with 5,400 sailors, I believe it is, is coming home exhausted.
02:14Is Jerome Powell simplistically, in the same way, just staying to block a Trump appointee, period?
02:24I hope he's not, you know, and I hope that, you know, he's trying to be fair-minded in his
02:30decision,
02:31and I disagree with the decision, and we can have disagreements in it,
02:34and that it isn't being as political as that, that he doesn't want Trump to have another appointee.
02:40And by the way, we'll get the Lisa Cook decision by June when the court adjourns,
02:46and if they do allow him to fire Lisa Cook for cause, I would assume probably the same day he'll
02:53fire Jay Powell,
02:54and we'll have to, and then he'll get two votes or he'll get two open seats to be able to
02:59replace.
02:59Now, of course, the court could rule otherwise, but that's coming as well, too.
03:03But I hope it's not that.
03:05I hope that it is more that he has a view about the institution not changing in a world where
03:12I think we're changing
03:13and it needs to evolve, and he's preventing that.
03:15Jim, stay close.
03:17I've got Mike McKee standing by.
03:18He just hopped out of the news conference.
03:19I want his reaction to all of this as well.
03:21Mike, you're in the room.
03:22Have you got a different perspective on things?
03:25Yes, I think I do.
03:26I was listening to what Jim said.
03:28I don't think Jay Powell is staying because he's trying to stand in the way of progress at the Fed.
03:33I think Jay Powell is staying because he doesn't trust the Department of Justice.
03:36He noted at the top that the Justice Department had said that they were dropping the probe,
03:42but he referenced back to Jeanine Pirro's comment about we could file another criminal complaint,
03:47and he doesn't know what the Justice Department will do, whether or not there would be validity in what the
03:55Justice Department might do.
03:56So he wants to make sure that that is the case, and he will at least probably stay through the
04:02inspector general's report.
04:03It is also possible he would stay on beyond that in order, as you did mention, in order to deny
04:09the president the possibility of another seat if he thinks what the president wants to do is take political control
04:16of the Fed.
04:17So, Jim, I want to give you a chance to respond to that.
04:20If anything, the chairman's been consistent.
04:22He's set a bar.
04:22He said this needs to be wrapped up with transparency and finality, and based on the comments we've heard, according
04:28to the chairman, he thinks they've fallen short of that bar, Jim.
04:31Yeah, I think he thinks that.
04:34Senator Tillis does not think that.
04:36That's why he voted today to advance his nomination.
04:38And I agree with Mike that he does not trust the Justice Department, but it's not his call.
04:46It's the Justice Department that the American public elected through the election of Donald Trump.
04:51And if he doesn't like it, he's going to then stay as a disruptive force to the Fed to prevent
04:57them from making any kind of changes or referrals or even looking in.
05:01Remember, this is all about the building cost and why it's been taken several years and is run so expensive.
05:07And it seems like he's saying we're not allowed to ask.
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