Nick Timiraos

That's important because Republicans right now have a 13 to 11 majority on the Senate Banking Committee.

So if they lose one vote, you know, as long as Tillis votes no and every Democrat shows up and votes no, you no longer can refer positively a nominee out of that committee.

If you get four senators on the Republican side who take that position and they really stand by it, it could be very difficult to confirm a new Fed chair if this escalates further.

I don't know.

I mean, yeah, it's like we're getting into all these hypotheticals that I didn't think we were going to... You know, it's 1 a.m.

Monday morning and I'm reading Congressional Research Service papers on, well, what happens when there's a vacancy?

And here's the answer.

You know, there have been two times...

in the modern fed where the new fed chair wasn't confirmed when the old chairs term expired and what happened in those two scenarios in 1948 and 1978 the outgoing chair stayed in the job and served his chair for a couple of months a couple of weeks but we we don't know here this is uncharted waters

If you're picked to be the Fed chair, are you willing to face the same intimidation that the current Fed chair is facing, and how will you react to it?

That wasn't a question that you would have expected

to have been asked before this, would you fight a criminal investigation?

How far are you willing to go?

Will you conduct yourself the way Powell has?

That's now gonna be a focus, very likely, of the next confirmation hearing.

Yeah, I think you're looking at more than just the loss of Fed independence.

What you're looking at is the White House claiming control of monetary policy.

When people talk about Fed independence, well, what Fed independence?

It's not in the Constitution.

There's no Fed should be a fourth branch of government.