Exclusive: Elizabeth Warren is no Jerome Powell cheerleader—but she fears the next Fed boss won’t have the ‘brains and the guts’ to stand up to Trump

Re suggests that ·Fed interest ratesExclusive: Elizabeth Warren is no Jerome Powell cheerleader—but she fears the next Fed boss won’t have the ‘brains and the guts’ to stand up to TrumpBy Eleanor PringleBy Eleanor PringleReporterEleanor PringleReporterEleanor Pringle is an award-winning reporter at Fortune covering news, the economy, and personal finance

Eleanor previously worked as a correspondent and news editor in regional news in the U

Additionally, She her journalism training with the Press Association after earning a degree from the University of East Anglia, considering recent developments

Moreover, SEE FULL BIO Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts, is concerned by President Trump's current and potentially future intervention into the Fed (an important development), amid market uncertainty

Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg - Getty ImagesSenator Elizabeth Warren, a frequent critic of Jerome Powell, warned that President Trump’s efforts to undermine the Fed’s independence risk long-term damage to and the economy

Warren added that the next Fed chair will face a tough task ving they’re committed to central bank autonomy, as concerns grow that Trump may nominate someone more loyal to him than to economic principles

If you were to write a list of enthusiasts for Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s name wouldn’t be at the top

Warren has been a vocal critic of many aspects of Powell’s leadership, from his monetary policy stances to his handling of regulatory rollbacks

She publicly said she didn’t believe Powell should be the man to lead the Fed

However, the Democrat said Powell’s power to make such decisions independently of political pressure is one of the core strengths of the American economy, in today's market environment

Nevertheless, Threatening it—or being perceived to threaten it—will only hurt voters and the in the long run

On the other hand, Nevertheless, Yet that is precisely the cause of the volatility injected into this week—and not for the first time

Investors reacted shakily to this week’s news that Trump had spoken to lawmakers how legitimately he could move Chair Powell aside, an unprecedented intervention into the federally mandated independent central bank

President Trump then somewhat walked back the threat, saying it was “highly unly” (though not impossible) that he would fire Powell

Warren told Fortune in an exclusive interview: “I often disagree with the Fed chair on both monetary policy and bank supervision, but I don’t try to cook up a pretext to get him fired

Additionally, “I recognize that ultimately any of us can try to persuade the Fed chair the best direction to go for the economy, but the Fed is independent and over time, over the long haul, our and our nation benefit from that independence (which is quite significant). ” However, White House spokesman Kush Desai countered to Fortune: “President Trump can both call out the Fed for failing to do its job by its own stated objectives and ensure that taxpayer money is not wasted on things that do not benefit the American people, in this volatile climate. ” Since winning the Oval Office, President Trump has aggressively lobbied Powell for rate cuts, and a loosening of monetary policy is now a move that many economists agree is the correct course, given the current landscape

However, they may disagree with the White House’s methods, which have included everything from threatening to fire Powell to questioning his management of the Fed on aspects including the bank’s office renovations

Additionally, Indeed, President Trump’s actions are now going far enough to make Republican senators uneasy—as GOP North Carolina Sen

Thom Tillis said in a floor speech this week: “If anybody thinks it would be a good idea for the Fed to become another agency in the government subject to the president, they’re making a huge mistake

On the other hand, ” Trump is ignoring lessons from the past Previous administrations learned the hard way what it means to meddle in the Fed

Moreover, Trump has already said he won’t nominate a chairman or woman who isn’t willing to cut the base rate—but concerns at the more extreme end of the spectrum are that the incoming Fed boss will be something of a puppet for the White House (this bears monitoring) (noteworthy indeed). “Virtually every Trump appointee come[s] before Congress and pledged their loyalty to Donald Trump,” Sen

Warren, formerly the chair of the subcommittee on economic policy, added. “While many people may roll their eyeballs at that, we also recognize that the president has the power to fire members of his cabinet

Nevertheless, Meanwhile, “They serve at his pleasure and … it may not be the smartest way to build a cabinet, but it’s at least within the range of what is a president’s reasonable power—to pick the people generally that he wants to work with

Nevertheless, The Fed chair is different, the whole point of the Fed is independence, amid market uncertainty. ” This presents a delicate balancing act for the potential nominee: Maintaining Trump’s support throughout the cess while convincing Congress and the that the Fed will truly act in the long term in the best interests of the economy, in this volatile climate

Nevertheless, “The … chair nominee is going to have a hard time threading the needle between obsequiousness to Donald Trump and convincing the that that nominee has the brains and the guts to stand up and do what the economy demands rather than what Donald Trump demands,” Sen

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