Over the past week, President Donald Trump has gone from threatening to oust Jerome Powell,
the chair of the Federal Reserve, to saying he has no intention of firing him.
And this is not the first time Trump has raised this possibility of interfering with the Fed or even firing Powell.
Trump has been loudly critical of Powell for years now.
And since January, the president has accused him of playing politics by keeping interest rates high.
And though so far Trump hasn't taken any action to dump Powell,
every time Trump's anger at the Fed chair flares, markets quiver and economists start flipping out.
Because they say the Fed has to be independent.
It has to focus on keeping the economy healthy.
And that process must be free from politics and pressure.
It needs to just focus on what's right for the economy.
But why exactly?
Hello and welcome to Planet Money.
I'm Darian Woods.
And I'm Waylon Wong.
Why is the independence of the Federal Reserve so sacred?
Why does just the idea of Trump interfering with the Fed send economists into a tizzy?
Today on the show, a primer on the Fed.
From the Indicator podcast, we have three ways of looking at that question for you today.
We'll look at what the Fed does, why its independence is so important,