What's at stake for the US in Federal Reserve vs Trump? | Number Theory

What could have possibly driven the latest precipitation and what are the possible implications of a confrontation between US govt and its monetary authority?

The latest (hitherto unimaginable) headline from Donald Trump’s America is the head of the US central bank coming on camera to say that he has been threatened with a criminal investigation for refusing to compromise what has often been considered a bulwark of US’s economic leadership in the world – an autonomous central bank setting monetary policy (read interest rates). “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,”, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a video statement on Sunday. While Trump has made no secret of his liking for a lower intertest rate or a more pliable central bank leadership, what could have possibly driven the latest precipitation and what are the possible implications of a confrontation between the US government and its monetary authority? Here are three things which offer some idea.

AFP