2025-07-31
9 分钟You might have seen the video last week of Donald Trump and the chair of the Federal Reserve,
Jerome Powell, sauntering around a building site.
They're touring the Federal Reserve buildings mid-renovation.
These buildings have been a target by Republicans trying to oust Jerome Powell,
which explains some of the awkward moments.
Trump hands Powell a piece of paper explaining why he thinks the Fed renovation costs balloons to $3.1 billion.
Now, it is no secret that this whole commotion is simply politics.
The president or congress cannot fire the fed chair
because they disagree that the central bank's interest rates are too high.
Just yesterday,
Jerome Powell announced interest rates remained above 4% to keep inflation under control.
So,
several Republican lawmakers are grilling the fed chair on something that could smell like mismanagement.
Renovation cost overruns.
Even if cost overruns are very common.
And recently, Republicans like Bernie Marano are criticizing the Fed for something else.
They've been losing hundreds of billions of dollars.
In fact, the number could be as high as one and a half trillion dollars.
That's how much the Fed is estimated to lose because of its actions during the pandemic.
This is the Indicator from Planet Money.