What Happened the Last Time a Fed Chief Was Bounced
The 1951 accord brought independence as we know it. And presidential bullying, too.
Middle-seated: William McChesney Martin gets squeezed between LBJ and his Treasury secretary, Henry Fowler.
Source: Bettmann/Getty
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The future of the Federal Reserve’s independence has degenerated into high-stakes reality TV. President Donald Trump is lambasting the chairman, Jerome Powell, as a “knucklehead” and “stiff”; official word from the White House that Powell will be fired is rescinded an hour later; and a growing list of candidates to replace him are piling on while making their own pitches, in public.
Beneath this distasteful spectacle, however, it’s just possible to discern a coherent vision of a new regime for the central bank, involving closer cooperation with the Treasury Department. That’s inherent in much of what the president has been saying. Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor and a leading contender to take over, laid out the idea in a CNBC interview: