There are many old white men Trump could go after on the board, and he chose to target the smart young woman. What a dirty move. I am offended, both for smart women and for African American women. This is a move to oppress smart women, not just to control monetary policy.
The first smear against a Fed member targeted Jay Powell, a white man, not Lisa Cook. The allegation was that he’d somehow done something wrong in getting the fed building redone - even more preposterous than the allegations against Cook.
Of course what he’s doing against Cook is atrocious. But isn’t the most obvious explanation here that they happened to find something in her file they thought they could use?
I would bet you any amount of money that if they’d found the same thing in the dossier of a white male fed member who supported Powell, they’d have gone after him. I’m not saying he isn’t racist or sexist. Of course he is. But must we always say that’s the key to what’s going on? Here, it seems not to be.
You ask, "...but must we always say that's the key to what's going on?" You answer is that it is not. But you are profoundly wrong. Trump is always duping his credulous supporters. And this is just another example of it. He pursues policies that will hurt them, but he does it by appealing to their prejudices. Importantly, he is indifferent to the political and social consequences of his actions.
By assuming Trump is merely pursuing Cook because he thinks he has found something he could use, you are completely missing the dynamics of what he is doing. He chose to go after Cook exactly because she is a black woman.
Importantly, by not seeing this, you are minimizing what he is doing: seizing power with the help of his right wing shadow army.
If you read the news, you know he’s going after people in every institution he wants to control, and everyone he wants to punish and thinks he can. Here, it’s Lisa Cook. But at almost the same time he said he was firing her, Kash Patel publicly announced a raid of John Bolton’s house and a criminal investigation. Bolton is about as far from a black woman as you can get.
Someone recently wrote: we are all Lisa Cook. We can be targeted if we resist Jim, so we need to stand together. That’s much closer to the truth than: “of course he chose to go after a black woman”. I’m sure racism and sexism will play out in the politics. But I suspect the way Trump wants it to play out is the way you responded: he wants liberals to say Trump and his supporters are just a bunch of racists, fight the battle on those terms.
Firing one person is a on a different level than verbally smearing another person. Of course, the president should be respecting the independence of both persons and of the board as a whole. But here we are.
Until his behavior improves, and he respects and honors smart women and African American women on par with old white men, then yes we will have to do this. Old habits die hard, and he (among others in our culture) is in need of our help to change those habits. It takes a village to restore dignity and to lift a culture.
PK: It is never a good idea to use the word "everybody" as in "everybody understands that." You really aren't literally talking about "everybody" since millions of Americans aren't paying attention to any of this. A severe lack of engagement on the part of American voters was instrumental in electing the Toddler Tyrant.
Here is what I think the truth is: Honest people who are paying attention know that this is just one more lawless, stupid act of an idiot. I was going to write "incompetent idiot," but Trump is an expert at being an idiot.
Remember that every accusation is a confession. And in T***p’s case, a 30 felony count conviction. Didn’t Cheeto Mussolini himself commit mortgage fraud? I believe part of those felony convictions included under and overvaluing his residence to get better terms. Why is no one pointing the finger back at the convicted felon?
Thanks Paul. I realize that the sky is falling but somehow you make me feel better that smart people still exist. Keep writing articles. We need your insight.
The fascinating and horrid question in all of this is how the Supreme Court will ultimately deal with the Fed. In their use of a standard -- "what would or could government do in 1791?" -- is clearly an impossible standard in the present era, meaning after 1900. How do we now reconcile a clear reliance interest based on more than a century of the Fed with the 18th century economic world that was local, barter, letters of credit, specie, and maybe to include local issuance of bank notes. I am guessing that one reason why the Supreme Court held off on including the Fed in its recent decision on the scope of presidential power is based on exactly these concerns, that the founders did not anticipate every aspect of current society, and Constitutional amendments for every nuance of change over time are impossible. So, we are left with Congress having the power to make law to respect needs of society. Should all of this come to the Court, we know that Alito and Thomas will trash the Fed. Kavanaugh, Barrett and Roberts are not so certain on this particular issue.
Paul’s explanation about how interest rates are set was enlightening and comforting; however, even odds that it WILL become controllable by the President is very concerning!
Inflation was an important issue in the last election and Trump managed to pin that on Biden and Harris despite that fact that Harris had no real voice in that policy. Inflation is rising as was pointed out in this post and will most likely get worse as the effects of tariffs become more pronounced.
If Trump were to manage to actually get the big rate cut he wants, I suspect we would look like Argentina at its worst. The Silver Bulletin shows that at this point 60.4% disapprove of Trump's handling of inflation and that is not a lower limit. Trump may get what he wants, real hard in that case. Instead of MAGA, it will be M(ake) A(merica) P(oor) A(gain).
Liza should not be footsieing this. He should simply be mocking the attempt by the Trump administration to dig up “unpaid parking tickets“ against anybody they don’t like. Get rid of the liberal reflex of trying to qualify so somebody from Fox News can’t trip you up. It is just, as Krugman says, The Crazy. Don’t credit the effort with any presumption of authority, as distinguished from a raw power-play.
Ryan thanks for doing this interview, and for asking Krugman to drill down into terms and practices-it was very helpful and I learned a lot. Glad to hear his take on all matters, am reading his column as well. Interesting to hear his take on how the markets aren't sounding alarms illustrated with what did/didn't happen with the housing 'bubble' with sub-prime mortgages and the Wile E Coyote runs! Good Q on what s/happen if we get a new President and hopefully legislation that strengthens Fed independence.
I’m conflicted. I want to watch and read everything and get to, for example, three main things said, but I don’t have enough time for stretches of casual conversation. My problem I guess.
Susan is right. The point was not even the autonomy of the fed. The point is that the target is a black woman. This is the signal being sent to Trump's base. Simple white racism. Consider: where is there a black person in the Trump administration?
Also, don't get pregnant if you are in the United States. Read Demetre C. Daskalakis' resignation letter. US just became a lot more dangerous for pregnant people and children.
Oh, and for everyone else who cares about public health.
There are many old white men Trump could go after on the board, and he chose to target the smart young woman. What a dirty move. I am offended, both for smart women and for African American women. This is a move to oppress smart women, not just to control monetary policy.
Remember that black women for the most part do not vote Republican and did not vote for Trump. This offends him personally.
The first smear against a Fed member targeted Jay Powell, a white man, not Lisa Cook. The allegation was that he’d somehow done something wrong in getting the fed building redone - even more preposterous than the allegations against Cook.
Of course what he’s doing against Cook is atrocious. But isn’t the most obvious explanation here that they happened to find something in her file they thought they could use?
I would bet you any amount of money that if they’d found the same thing in the dossier of a white male fed member who supported Powell, they’d have gone after him. I’m not saying he isn’t racist or sexist. Of course he is. But must we always say that’s the key to what’s going on? Here, it seems not to be.
You ask, "...but must we always say that's the key to what's going on?" You answer is that it is not. But you are profoundly wrong. Trump is always duping his credulous supporters. And this is just another example of it. He pursues policies that will hurt them, but he does it by appealing to their prejudices. Importantly, he is indifferent to the political and social consequences of his actions.
By assuming Trump is merely pursuing Cook because he thinks he has found something he could use, you are completely missing the dynamics of what he is doing. He chose to go after Cook exactly because she is a black woman.
Importantly, by not seeing this, you are minimizing what he is doing: seizing power with the help of his right wing shadow army.
If you read the news, you know he’s going after people in every institution he wants to control, and everyone he wants to punish and thinks he can. Here, it’s Lisa Cook. But at almost the same time he said he was firing her, Kash Patel publicly announced a raid of John Bolton’s house and a criminal investigation. Bolton is about as far from a black woman as you can get.
He’s also firing top officials at Justice, DOD, and intelligence services, and on and on. Fire some intimidate the rest. The list goes on and on. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-revenge-summer-heats-fed-130000907.html
Someone recently wrote: we are all Lisa Cook. We can be targeted if we resist Jim, so we need to stand together. That’s much closer to the truth than: “of course he chose to go after a black woman”. I’m sure racism and sexism will play out in the politics. But I suspect the way Trump wants it to play out is the way you responded: he wants liberals to say Trump and his supporters are just a bunch of racists, fight the battle on those terms.
Edit: it occurred to me that at the same he announced the Cook issue, he announced an investigation of Adam Schiff for essentially the same issue. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/doj-opens-investigation-new-york-ags-office-brought-fraud-case-trump-rcna223731
Firing one person is a on a different level than verbally smearing another person. Of course, the president should be respecting the independence of both persons and of the board as a whole. But here we are.
Until his behavior improves, and he respects and honors smart women and African American women on par with old white men, then yes we will have to do this. Old habits die hard, and he (among others in our culture) is in need of our help to change those habits. It takes a village to restore dignity and to lift a culture.
PK: It is never a good idea to use the word "everybody" as in "everybody understands that." You really aren't literally talking about "everybody" since millions of Americans aren't paying attention to any of this. A severe lack of engagement on the part of American voters was instrumental in electing the Toddler Tyrant.
Here is what I think the truth is: Honest people who are paying attention know that this is just one more lawless, stupid act of an idiot. I was going to write "incompetent idiot," but Trump is an expert at being an idiot.
If we ever come out of this with our democratic republic intact, we need to rewrite the Constitution to make sure this can never happen again.
First of all, get rid of the Presidency.
Remember that every accusation is a confession. And in T***p’s case, a 30 felony count conviction. Didn’t Cheeto Mussolini himself commit mortgage fraud? I believe part of those felony convictions included under and overvaluing his residence to get better terms. Why is no one pointing the finger back at the convicted felon?
Thanks Paul. I realize that the sky is falling but somehow you make me feel better that smart people still exist. Keep writing articles. We need your insight.
The fascinating and horrid question in all of this is how the Supreme Court will ultimately deal with the Fed. In their use of a standard -- "what would or could government do in 1791?" -- is clearly an impossible standard in the present era, meaning after 1900. How do we now reconcile a clear reliance interest based on more than a century of the Fed with the 18th century economic world that was local, barter, letters of credit, specie, and maybe to include local issuance of bank notes. I am guessing that one reason why the Supreme Court held off on including the Fed in its recent decision on the scope of presidential power is based on exactly these concerns, that the founders did not anticipate every aspect of current society, and Constitutional amendments for every nuance of change over time are impossible. So, we are left with Congress having the power to make law to respect needs of society. Should all of this come to the Court, we know that Alito and Thomas will trash the Fed. Kavanaugh, Barrett and Roberts are not so certain on this particular issue.
Paul’s explanation about how interest rates are set was enlightening and comforting; however, even odds that it WILL become controllable by the President is very concerning!
Inflation was an important issue in the last election and Trump managed to pin that on Biden and Harris despite that fact that Harris had no real voice in that policy. Inflation is rising as was pointed out in this post and will most likely get worse as the effects of tariffs become more pronounced.
If Trump were to manage to actually get the big rate cut he wants, I suspect we would look like Argentina at its worst. The Silver Bulletin shows that at this point 60.4% disapprove of Trump's handling of inflation and that is not a lower limit. Trump may get what he wants, real hard in that case. Instead of MAGA, it will be M(ake) A(merica) P(oor) A(gain).
Liza should not be footsieing this. He should simply be mocking the attempt by the Trump administration to dig up “unpaid parking tickets“ against anybody they don’t like. Get rid of the liberal reflex of trying to qualify so somebody from Fox News can’t trip you up. It is just, as Krugman says, The Crazy. Don’t credit the effort with any presumption of authority, as distinguished from a raw power-play.
Ryan thanks for doing this interview, and for asking Krugman to drill down into terms and practices-it was very helpful and I learned a lot. Glad to hear his take on all matters, am reading his column as well. Interesting to hear his take on how the markets aren't sounding alarms illustrated with what did/didn't happen with the housing 'bubble' with sub-prime mortgages and the Wile E Coyote runs! Good Q on what s/happen if we get a new President and hopefully legislation that strengthens Fed independence.
Let this be the last thing you do with Ryan Lizza. He's useless. Not to be confused with Chris Cilizza, who is also useless, and should be avoided.
You don't have to watch.
Don't plan to. His opinions have always been terrible.
Good riddance
not completely useless. he did this interesting interview with Paul Krugman
Go away troll
I’m conflicted. I want to watch and read everything and get to, for example, three main things said, but I don’t have enough time for stretches of casual conversation. My problem I guess.
Susan is right. The point was not even the autonomy of the fed. The point is that the target is a black woman. This is the signal being sent to Trump's base. Simple white racism. Consider: where is there a black person in the Trump administration?
If she would kowtow to Trump and let him have his way, he’d leave her alone.
Also, don't get pregnant if you are in the United States. Read Demetre C. Daskalakis' resignation letter. US just became a lot more dangerous for pregnant people and children.
Oh, and for everyone else who cares about public health.
How about Paul Krugman for Pope? And we can worry about the Cardinals later.
Stasi