The writer is an FT contributing editor and director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute
Thom Tillis, a Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, showed his colleagues the proper response to the Department of Justice’s investigation of Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell when he promised to oppose the confirmation of Powell’s successor until the “legal matter is fully resolved”.
Powell is facing a criminal investigation over the testimony he delivered to the Banking Committee about renovations to the central bank’s headquarters. This probe is clearly a thin pretext for pressuring the Fed to lower interest rates in accordance with the president’s wishes and for intimidating current and future members of the rate-setting committee into bending the knee to Trump.