On Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she is “glad” to publicly blast Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and say he would be responsible for job losses. But “If Chairman Powell can be fired by the president of the United States, it will crash the markets in the United States.” Because it would undercut the Fed being independent of politics.
Warren said, “I have tangled with him on a regular basis about both regulations and interest rates. But, understand this, if Chairman Powell can be fired by the president of the United States, it will crash the markets in the United States. The infrastructure that keeps this stock market strong and therefore a big part of our economy strong and therefore a big part of the world economy strong, is the idea that the big pieces move independent of the politics, that somebody is making his, their, her best decisions economically and independently.”
She further stated that it’s dangerous if financial regulators can be pressured by elected officials.
Co-host Carl Quintanilla then asked, “You would agree jawboning between the executive and the Fed is nothing new, right?”
Warren answered, “Jawboning is different. … Well, partly, jawboning occurs out in public, but nobody threatens anybody’s job. At the end of the day, presidents always, even in the jawboning, have said, I recognize you are the one who makes the decision. Look, I will try to persuade Jerome Powell –.”
Quintanilla cut in to say, “You said he would be responsible for 2 million job cuts.”
Warren responded, “I believe that. I am glad to do that. Do it in hearings. It’s called oversight, but it’s all out in public, anybody can see it, and I don’t threaten his job. And the president of the United States should not threaten his job.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Read the full article here
