Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell believes President Donald Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to fire him and intends to serve out the rest of his four-year term.
In an interview with “60 Minutes” aired on March 10, host Scott Pelley asked Powell if the president can fire the chair of the Federal Reserve.
“Well, the law is clear that I have a four-year term. And I fully intend to serve it,” Powell responded.
“So no, in your view?” Pelley asked.
“No,” Powell answered.
When presented with one of the president’s criticisms, Powell declined to comment and reasserted the Fed’s independence.
“My duty is one that Congress has given us, which is to use our tools to achieve maximum employment and stable prices and to supervise and regulate banks so that they treat their customers fairly and so that they’re strong, well-capitalized, and can perform their critical function in good times and bad,” Powell said. “That’s my job.”
The central bank didn’t raise interest rates in January this year for this first time during Powell’s tenure. The Fed kept interest rates at an all-time low throughout the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
“We are directed to take, to execute policy, in a strictly nonpolitical way, serving all Americans and that’s what we do. We are independent in that sense. Our decisions on rates can’t be reversed by any other part of government,” Powell said.
The central bank is the sole vehicle for creating money in the United States, with much of the supply created via unbacked bank loans, similar to creating money out of nothing.
Shortly before announcing his presidential bid in 2015, Trump suggested that moving back to the gold standard “would be wonderful,” but hard to do because the United States no longer has the gold needed. Under a gold-standard banking system, every dollar is backed by gold held by the government.