Powell Must Stay at the Fed as a Governor Now: Jonathan Levin

These are officially the darkest days for Federal Reserve independence since at least the Nixon administration. After attacking Fed Governor Lisa Cook last year, President Donald Trump is now weaponizing the Justice Department against Chair Jerome Powell in a thinly veiled effort to intimidate him into lowering interest rates against the best interests of the American people. It’s the sort of treatment that you’d expect in a tin-pot banana republic, and it will be a stain on America’s reputation for years to come.

The attack is a sign of why America needs principled leaders at its central bank — and ...