The Fed under attack

What a long strange trip it has been. From American public media, this is Marketplace. In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Risdall. It is Monday today. This one is the January 12. Good as always to have you along, everybody. Jay Powell is, first of all, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. We all know that. He is also, though, a lawyer by training, a private equity guy by background, and, and I promise this will make sense in a minute, a fan of the Grateful Dead, a deadhead, if you will. So as we mark the passing this past weekend of the band's guitarist, Bob Weir, one of his lyrics comes to mind, and this is where Powell and the dead come together in this moment. What a long strange trip it's been, that lyric goes, from the 1970 classic Truckin'. What a long strange trip indeed. The first time I interviewed Jay Powell was the February 1818, not long after he'd gotten the job, his first broadcast interview, if I might humble brag just a bit. And I asked him about something that was even then becoming clear and apparent. The guy who put him in the job, criticizing him personally and often. Here's what Powell said. Let me just say I'm I'm not concerned about it, and I'll tell you why. We have a long tradition here of conducting policy in a particular way, and that way is independent of of, all political concerns. We we we do our work in a in a strictly nonpolitical way based on detailed analysis, which we put on the record transparently, and we don't consider political consideration. We don't take political considerations into account. I would I would add, though, that no one in the administration has said anything to me that really gives me concern on this front. But this is this is deep in our DNA for, you know, for a long, long time. The Fed has felt it important to conduct our business that way. I'm deeply committed to to that approach, and so are all of my colleagues here. And here we are just shy of eight years later, and this was part of what Powell said yesterday afternoon after being subpoenaed by the Department of Justice and threatened with a criminal investigation. This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation. I think I don't need to say this, but I will just to be clear. This is a very big deal. You know how we got here. We've covered that a lot. The question is, what happens now? That's in a minute, but I'll tell you what. To look at the markets today, yesterday was just another Sunday. We'll have the details when we do the numbers. About a year and a half ago, right before the presidential election, with …