Eric Hilt

In my opening remarks, I'd like to briefly first review today's policy decisions.

And some presidents have chosen to reappoint the Fed chairs they inherited from their predecessors, even if they were from the other political party.

So one of the most significant examples of a new Fed chair being chosen by the president and marking sort of a dramatic shift in Fed policy is President Nixon's choice of Arthur Burns.

But under Burns, the Fed was unwilling to adopt the painful measures that were probably necessary to bring inflation under control.

You know, you can't see the grimace on my face right now.

I'm very worried about how this is going to go.

I think that if history teaches us anything, it's that having an independent Fed, a nonpartisan independent Fed chair is very important and very valuable economically.

And I fear that we may lose that.