Howard Schneider

That's probably as good as losing for Trump because you've now got Lisa Cook on the Board of Governors for however many months or years it takes for that process to sort of work its way up through.

You don't protect the people!

Usually when the chair turns over, when the four-year term ends, unless they're reappointed, which Powell will not be in this case, the chair also clears out of their board seat.

It's kind of in the spirit of democratic transition.

And you know what?

They get to pick a chair.

The new president gets to pick a chair.

No reason for me to hang around.

It's worked that way since the 1950s.

But this has not been a normal relationship.

And what happened over the weekend, last Friday in particular, with the Fed being subpoenaed, has kind of raised the stakes all around.

And folks who are sort of thinking through the possibilities now here are wondering, well, is he going to walk away from this under a cloud?

Is he going to walk away from this institution if he thinks

this is how the president is going to treat other governors, other Fed chairs, you know, with the threat of the criminal justice system kind of intervening at any point if they don't like the outcomes they're getting.

That's a pretty compelling situation to say you're going to retire as much as you might want to at age 72 and pursue your post-retirement passions, be with your family, plenty of options, right?

Or do you stay in that governor's job and fight?

And the thing is, right now, that board's pretty split.

And Powell has never said publicly what he's going to do.

When he's asked about it, he says, I'm worried about my job as chair and serving that term out and not tipping his hand at all.

People buy food and energy and those prices went up a bit smartly.