, Columnist
Ted Cruz Has a Weird Idea About the Federal Reserve
Ending interest on bank reserves wouldn’t save money or protect taxpayers, but it would make the central bank’s job much harder.
Don’t mess with the Fed, Ted.
Photographer: Annabelle Gordon/BloombergIn their efforts to offset tax cuts and exert more control over the Federal Reserve, some US legislators have lately focused attention on an otherwise obscure element of monetary policy: The Fed, they argue, should stop paying interest on the cash reserves that banks hold at the central bank.
It's a bad idea, in more ways than one.