Second-Term Risk Trumps All Others for the Fed
Powell will be challenged to maintain the Federal Reserve’s viability as an independent institution. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and gold are surging.
It’s time to start working out what a second term would mean.
Photographer: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty
To get John Authers' newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here.
If there’s one risk that clouds all others at present, it can be expressed in one word: “Trump.” That at least is what you might glean from the media outpouring of the last few days. Some consider this a risk with great upside; others, a nightmare. But polls of the Republican primary electorate (Donald Trump’s lead is prohibitive) and the general election (his nose is now clearly ahead as the front-runner) suggest it’s incumbent on everyone to start working out now what a second term would mean: