[Moto7451]

The Federal Reserve (The Fed) is supposed to work independently of the political process which is why we have the same Fed Chair as we did during the Trump years. Ironically this means the Fed Chair keeping rates high is the same one that set a zero base rate. The various Fed leaders operate under the same guise of serving outside the political cycles.

They’re still human so they can be swayed by Presidents and obviously have their own political leanings. In general the ability to not listen to politics allows them to make choices that are inconvenient for an election cycle but good for the US economy.

[a_wild_dandan]

FYI, Trump has vowed to purge the executive branch of unloyal employees, aiming for unitary rule during his 2nd term. It’s unclear how much of this his conservative SC majority will allow, but…the norm of stable, institutional independence might be gone soon.

[Moto7451]

Sure, Supreme Court volatility opens that up. The last time his Chairmanship was under threat it was unclear if he could be removed by Trump simply because Trump wanted to so it would require the usual "Do the thing", get sued, take it to the Supreme Court. Such actions aren't instant even for the President, especially if he is busy having them settle his other matters he wants to bring to them.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/does-the-president-have-le...

Also, removing Powell doesn't let any president put someone in who will set whatever rate they want. It must be a member of the Board, of which two are his nominees from his term. They also don't have to listen to him.

When it comes to setting rates, Powell is chairman, not supreme leader. The FOMC sets rates and that is a group of twelve.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fomc.asp

Given Trump wouldn't see sworn in until 2025 and would have the usual problems of any new President rather than the benefit of a second term, and as Powell was confirmed in 2022, under current case law, Trump at best simply gets to nominate a new chair a number of months before he'd do so in 2026.

Powell's single 14 year term on Fed board ends in 2028 so there will be a new Chair no matter what after that.

While from a Political standpoint, I don't like what he may do, I am ok with how this is setup. This is not as easy as simply replacing his cabinet members and that is a good thing.

[nebula8804]

At least we can replace all those Biden stickers next to the gas pumps that say "I did that" with Trump stickers... :/