Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
On Sunday evening, news broke that the Trump administration was targeting Jerome Powell — the Federal Reserve chair, whom President Trump has been raging about for months — with a highly dubious criminal investigation into supposed financial improprieties. Usually reserved in his public statements, Mr. Powell posted a video bluntly calling the allegations a dishonest attempt at revenge for the Fed’s refusal to simply follow the president’s wishes.
The episode is a shocking violation of the central bank’s historical independence, one that puts the United States in league with authoritarian nations careening toward financial ruin. On Monday, markets reacted with something along the lines of “meh”: The dollar and stock prices edged down, while gold prices and interest rates rose.
Mr. Trump’s attack on the Fed is a breathtaking departure from precedent, a dangerous and scary power grab, but it’s already backfiring. If anything, this latest episode has weakened his ability to bend the institution to his will, at least in the short run. It definitely increases the chance that Mr. Powell, whose term as chair ends in May, but whose appointment as a board member does not, will remain at the Fed longer than he might otherwise have. It will also raise the hurdle for whoever Mr. Trump nominates as the next Fed chair. And it will make other members of that body a lot less likely to go along with the president’s agenda.
As recently as November 2024, Mr. Powell was saying as little as possible, replying simply “no” when asked whether he would resign if requested to do so by Mr. Trump. That restraint is what made the video he released on Sunday night so powerful. This is not a man looking to become a resistance hero.
When Mr. Powell’s term as chair ends in May, he could stay on as a governor — and one of 12 voters on monetary policy — through January 2028. With threats intensifying, the case for his continued presence as a quiet but firm defender of Fed independence grows only stronger.
Mr. Trump has made it harder for his nominee as the next Fed chair to be confirmed. Almost immediately after news of the criminal investigation broke, Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican member of the Banking Committee, issued a striking statement: “If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none.” He added, “I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed — including the upcoming Fed chair vacancy — until this legal matter is fully resolved.” Another Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, endorsed that view, as did several Democrats.
Further complicating matters, Mr. Trump’s attack on the Fed ensures that when a successor is eventually confirmed, he or she will have to do more to demonstrate independence, or else be remembered as the person who surrendered it. The Fed’s 11 other monetary-policy voters have increasingly been voting their own views. That is likely to accelerate if they feel that the new chair is just trying to please the president, rather than working in the best interests of the economy.
We have a relatively rapid feedback mechanism to measure the success of economic policy: Markets and business leaders react in real time, in a way they do not on issues like immigration enforcement and whether to invade Greenland.
The Fed is likely to win this battle. The broader war will probably continue as long as Mr. Trump remains president. One possible consequence is that the Fed becomes a victim of its own success, with people mistaking the markets’ mild initial response for proof that independence is no big deal. In reality, that calm reflects confidence in the defenses that were rapidly deployed: senators from both parties, former economic officials, the politically neutral judgment of markets themselves and ultimately the wisdom of the public.
The greater risk is time. Independence will not be lost overnight, but at least every two years the president can nominate a new governor for the Fed. With sustained effort over six to eight years, an administration could gradually transform the institution. That would require patience from Mr. Trump and complacency from everyone else. So far, at least, on this issue we are seeing neither.
"ICE is reportedly investing $100 million on what it calls 'wartime recruitment' of 10,000 new agents, in addition to the 20,000 already employed. Its recruitment is targeting gun and military enthusiasts, people who listen to right-wing radio, who have gone to Ultimate Fighting Championship fights or shopped for guns and tactical gear, live near military bases, and attend NASCAR races. It’s calling for recruits willing to perform their 'sacred duty' and 'defend the homeland' by repelling 'foreign invaders.'”
"There’s coming to be no difference between Trump’s foreign and domestic policies. Both are based on the same eight maniacal ideas: 1) Might makes right. 2) Law is irrelevant. 3) America is at war with the world’s 'radical left,' who are defined chiefly by their opposition to Trump. 4) Fear and force are better weapons in this war than hope and compromise. 5) The U.S. stock market is the best measure of Trump’s success. 6) Personal enrichment by Trump and other officials is justified in pursuit of victory. 7) So are lies, cover-ups, and the illegal use of force. 8) Trump is invincible and omnipotent."
"Trump is putting America on a war footing because war is good for him as it is for all dictators. War confers emergency powers. It justifies ignoring the niceties of elections. It allows dictators to imprison and intimidate opponents and enemies. It enables them to create their own personal slush funds. It distracts the public from other things (remember Jeffrey Epstein?). War gives dictators like Trump more power and more wealth. Period."
"On Jan. 7, 2026, U.S. Vice President JD Vance appeared on Fox News to discuss Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' deportation actions, among other issues. Numerous listeners claimed Vance proposed that ICE would go 'door-to-door' to determine the immigration status of people across the country."
"Footage of Vance on Fox News shows him responding to a question from Watters about how President Donald Trump's administration would speed up deportations of immigrants in the country illegally, to which Vance said ICE agents would be going 'door-to-door' to check documentation. As such, we rate this claim a correct attribution." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/vance-door-to-door-ice/
Comments: This is straight out of a FASCIST playbook!
If anyone needed to better understand just how nervous trump's own tariffs are starting to make trump, just look at him applying ONLY 25% tariffs on countries doing business with Iran. Weak sauce. He threatens them, bombs them and then goes with only 25%.
If anyone needed to better understand just how nervous trump's own tariffs are starting to make trump, just look at him applying ONLY 25% tariffs on countries doing business with Iran. Weak sauce. He threatens them, bombs them and then goes with only 25%.
"Just weeks into the new year, the Trump administration has rolled out a campaign across departments that draws on images and ideas borrowed from right-wing and white nationalist circles. Liz Landers reports on what some of these images and posts mean, and Amna Nawaz discusses more with Cynthia Miller-Idriss of the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab at American University." https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-administration-posts-echo-rhetoric-linked-to-extremist-groups
Comments: I'm amazed that certain people of Jewish descent unquestionably endorse Trump's actions. Segments of Trump's support base (potentially large?) loathe all Jews based strictly on ethnicity. I guess this unusual phenomenon only occurs when these people are brainwashed into embracing "Trumpism."
Comments: I'm amazed that certain people of Jewish descent unquestionably endorse Trump's actions. Segments of Trump's support base (potentially large?) loathe all Jews based strictly on ethnicity. I guess this unusual phenomenon only occurs when these people are brainwashed into embracing "Trumpism."
"Just weeks into the new year, the Trump administration has rolled out a campaign across departments that draws on images and ideas borrowed from right-wing and white nationalist circles. Liz Landers reports on what some of these images and posts mean, and Amna Nawaz discusses more with Cynthia Miller-Idriss of the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab at American University." https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-administration-posts-echo-rhetoric-linked-to-extremist-groups
Comments: I'm amazed that certain people of Jewish descent unquestionably endorse Trump's actions. Segments of Trump's support base (potentially large?) loathe all Jews based strictly on ethnicity. I guess this unusual phenomenon only occurs when these people are brainwashed into embracing "Trumpism."
It is a bifurcation of thought. They are themselves racist and intolerant, so are drawn to the overall messaging. At the same time they believe, like many before them, that they will not be targeted. Perhaps they believe that they are somehow "different" or "special". History has shown that this is not the case.
Either you help to stamp out hate, or hate stamps you out. Then hate comes for your children, too. The compartmentalism doesn't protect you. Leopards don't care if you cooperated with the oppressors. They still eat your face.
"You could be next. All of us need to realize this. The people who are being assaulted and murdered are abiding the law. You could be murdered because Trump’s attorney general has defined 'domestic terrorism' to include impeding law enforcement officers. What if you’re merely standing in the way — in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or maybe you’re engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience?"
"Trump could just as well arrest and expel permanent residents who voice support for, say, transgender people or DEI or 'woke' or anything else the regime finds 'anti-American' and offensive. What’s to stop the Trump regime from arresting you for, say, advocating the replacement of Republicans in Congress in 2026 and electing a Democrat to the presidency in 2028?"
"What’s at stake isn’t just American democracy. It’s also your safety and security and that of your friends and loved ones. This is personal — to every one of us. A dictatorship knows no bounds."
"Charlotte Clymer, who writes Charlotte’s Web Thoughts, walked readers through Kelly’s citations. They include the Navy Pilot Astronaut Badge, earned by fewer than 200 service members, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. As Clymer notes, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal is 'the highest award bestowed by NASA and one of the rarest awards in the federal government.' Since the medal was created in 1959, it has been awarded fewer than 400 times."
"Kelly’s lawsuit notes that the First Amendment prohibits the government from retaliating against those engaging in protected speech and that the Constitution’s protection of the speech and debate of lawmakers provides additional safeguards. Indeed, the lawsuit says, 'never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech.'"
"If the court permits that unprecedented step, the lawsuit argues, it would allow the executive branch to punish members of Congress for engaging in their duty of congressional oversight. Kelly asked the court 'to declare the censure letter, reopening determination, retirement grade determination proceedings, and related actions unlawful and unconstitutional; to vacate those actions; to enjoin their enforcement; and to preserve the status of a coequal Congress and an apolitical military.'"
"The warning Kelly and the other five Democratic lawmakers offered to military personnel that they must refuse illegal orders took on renewed meaning this evening. Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, John Ismay, Julian E. Barnes, Riley Mellen, and Christiaan Triebert of the New York Times reported that when the U.S. military attacked a small boat apparently coming from Venezuela on September 2, 2025, the first such attack of what now number at least 35, it used a secret aircraft that had been disguised to look like a civilian plane."
"The journalists report that disguising a military aircraft to look like a civilian plane is a war crime called 'perfidy.' 'Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,' former deputy judge advocate general of the U.S. Air Force retired Major General Steven J. Lepper told the reporters. 'If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft, it should not be engaged in combatant activity.'"
And one reason perfidy is illegal is that once it is a recognized practice, ALL civilian aircraft become fair game. Russia or China can now shoot down commercial aircraft that wander too close to their vessels.
Iran, or any ME nation, can now justify shooting down El Al aircraft.
The unintended consequences of this administrations actions will be entirely predictable.
Before a slow wildebeest tries to portray a single month core CPI as some sort of tariff victory, 2.6% core is still high. Single months are irrelevant to sustained inflation readings. And, at this point, government produced numbers are impossible to believe.
Further, much inflationary damage has already been done. Many companies have yet to fully raise prices, as they struggle to absorb some of the costs. Let us not forget that companies which absorb costs, become less profitable in the long run.
What we are looking at is failed policies that have driven costs much higher, and a scattered attempt to distract from that by demanding lower rates from the FED, from credit card companies, from banks, from mortgage lenders. And by telling investors that they cannot buy rental properties. Basically, full micromanagement and manipulation of the capitalist free-market structures that people rely upon for stability.
Still, those with flawed partisan political agendas, will no doubt try to gaslight, once again.
"What we are looking at is failed policies that have driven costs much higher, and a scattered attempt to distract from that by demanding lower rates from the FED, from credit card companies, from banks, from mortgage lenders. And by telling investors that they cannot buy rental properties. Basically, full micromanagement and manipulation of the capitalist free-market structures that people rely upon for stability."
Because a fool who has already bankrupted several companies surely know what's best for the U.S. economy!
Comments
any guesses?
trump is 0 for ~8 so far in his retribution lawsuits.
all this taxpayer funded winning is not making me wealthy.
...and MAGA says right back atchya via postings on MFO !
in addition to the 20,000 already employed. Its recruitment is targeting gun and military enthusiasts,
people who listen to right-wing radio, who have gone to Ultimate Fighting Championship fights
or shopped for guns and tactical gear, live near military bases, and attend NASCAR races.
It’s calling for recruits willing to perform their 'sacred duty' and 'defend the homeland' by repelling 'foreign invaders.'”
"There’s coming to be no difference between Trump’s foreign and domestic policies.
Both are based on the same eight maniacal ideas:
1) Might makes right.
2) Law is irrelevant.
3) America is at war with the world’s 'radical left,' who are defined chiefly by their opposition to Trump.
4) Fear and force are better weapons in this war than hope and compromise.
5) The U.S. stock market is the best measure of Trump’s success.
6) Personal enrichment by Trump and other officials is justified in pursuit of victory.
7) So are lies, cover-ups, and the illegal use of force.
8) Trump is invincible and omnipotent."
"Trump is putting America on a war footing because war is good for him as it is for all dictators.
War confers emergency powers. It justifies ignoring the niceties of elections.
It allows dictators to imprison and intimidate opponents and enemies.
It enables them to create their own personal slush funds.
It distracts the public from other things (remember Jeffrey Epstein?).
War gives dictators like Trump more power and more wealth. Period."
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-foreign-and-domestic-policies
"How to f**k up a country and make Uncle Vlad extremely happy in the process."
Oh, ya. I almost forgot: EPSTEIN. EPSTEIN. EPSTEIN.
No Text In Post. Makes sense.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' deportation actions, among other issues.
Numerous listeners claimed Vance proposed that ICE would go 'door-to-door'
to determine the immigration status of people across the country."
"Footage of Vance on Fox News shows him responding to a question from Watters about how
President Donald Trump's administration would speed up deportations of immigrants in the country illegally,
to which Vance said ICE agents would be going 'door-to-door' to check documentation.
As such, we rate this claim a correct attribution."
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/vance-door-to-door-ice/
Comments: This is straight out of a FASCIST playbook!
Canada is 35%.
Door-to-door? Like vacuum salesman?
that draws on images and ideas borrowed from right-wing and white nationalist circles.
Liz Landers reports on what some of these images and posts mean, and Amna Nawaz discusses more
with Cynthia Miller-Idriss of the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab at American University."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-administration-posts-echo-rhetoric-linked-to-extremist-groups
Comments: I'm amazed that certain people of Jewish descent unquestionably endorse Trump's actions.
Segments of Trump's support base (potentially large?) loathe all Jews based strictly on ethnicity.
I guess this unusual phenomenon only occurs when these people are brainwashed into embracing "Trumpism."
Segments of Trump's support base (potentially large?) loathe all Jews based strictly on ethnicity.
I guess this unusual phenomenon only occurs when these people are brainwashed into embracing "Trumpism."
That would explain it.
Either you help to stamp out hate, or hate stamps you out. Then hate comes for your children, too. The compartmentalism doesn't protect you. Leopards don't care if you cooperated with the oppressors. They still eat your face.
the law. You could be murdered because Trump’s attorney general has defined 'domestic terrorism' to include
impeding law enforcement officers.
What if you’re merely standing in the way — in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or maybe you’re engaging
in nonviolent civil disobedience?"
"Trump could just as well arrest and expel permanent residents who voice support for, say, transgender people
or DEI or 'woke' or anything else the regime finds 'anti-American' and offensive. What’s to stop the Trump regime
from arresting you for, say, advocating the replacement of Republicans in Congress in 2026 and electing
a Democrat to the presidency in 2028?"
"What’s at stake isn’t just American democracy. It’s also your safety and security and that of your friends and loved ones. This is personal — to every one of us. A dictatorship knows no bounds."
They include the Navy Pilot Astronaut Badge, earned by fewer than 200 service members,
and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. As Clymer notes, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal
is 'the highest award bestowed by NASA and one of the rarest awards in the federal government.'
Since the medal was created in 1959, it has been awarded fewer than 400 times."
"Kelly’s lawsuit notes that the First Amendment prohibits the government from retaliating
against those engaging in protected speech and that the Constitution’s protection of the speech
and debate of lawmakers provides additional safeguards. Indeed, the lawsuit says,
'never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions
on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech.'"
"If the court permits that unprecedented step, the lawsuit argues, it would allow the executive branch
to punish members of Congress for engaging in their duty of congressional oversight.
Kelly asked the court 'to declare the censure letter, reopening determination,
retirement grade determination proceedings, and related actions unlawful and unconstitutional;
to vacate those actions; to enjoin their enforcement; and to preserve the status
of a coequal Congress and an apolitical military.'"
"The warning Kelly and the other five Democratic lawmakers offered to military personnel
that they must refuse illegal orders took on renewed meaning this evening.
Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, John Ismay, Julian E. Barnes, Riley Mellen, and Christiaan Triebert
of the New York Times reported that when the U.S. military attacked a small boat
apparently coming from Venezuela on September 2, 2025, the first such attack
of what now number at least 35, it used a secret aircraft that had been disguised to look
like a civilian plane."
"The journalists report that disguising a military aircraft to look like a civilian plane
is a war crime called 'perfidy.' 'Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,'
former deputy judge advocate general of the U.S. Air Force retired Major General Steven J. Lepper
told the reporters. 'If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft,
it should not be engaged in combatant activity.'"
Iran, or any ME nation, can now justify shooting down El Al aircraft.
The unintended consequences of this administrations actions will be entirely predictable.
Further, much inflationary damage has already been done. Many companies have yet to fully raise prices, as they struggle to absorb some of the costs. Let us not forget that companies which absorb costs, become less profitable in the long run.
What we are looking at is failed policies that have driven costs much higher, and a scattered attempt to distract from that by demanding lower rates from the FED, from credit card companies, from banks, from mortgage lenders. And by telling investors that they cannot buy rental properties. Basically, full micromanagement and manipulation of the capitalist free-market structures that people rely upon for stability.
Still, those with flawed partisan political agendas, will no doubt try to gaslight, once again.
and a scattered attempt to distract from that by demanding lower rates from the FED,
from credit card companies, from banks, from mortgage lenders.
And by telling investors that they cannot buy rental properties.
Basically, full micromanagement and manipulation of the capitalist free-market
structures that people rely upon for stability."
Because a fool who has already bankrupted several companies surely know what's best for the U.S. economy!