You know Watergate, but do you know Fedgate? The more subtle scandal with more monetary policy and, arguably, much higher stakes.In today's episode, we listen back through the Nixon White House tapes to search for evidence of an alarming chapter in American economic history: When the President of the United States seemingly flouted the norms of Fed Independence in order to pressure the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board into decisions that were economically bad in the long run but good for Nixon's upcoming election.The tale of Nixon and his Fed Chair, Arthur Burns, has become the cautionary tale about why Fed Independence matters. That choice may have started a decade of catastrophic inflation. And Burns' story is now being invoked as President-elect Trump has explicitly said he'd like more control over the Federal Reserve.Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Just a heads up, in this episode, a former president curses a few times.
This is Planet Money from NPR. secretly recorded audio from the White House. Specifically, 1,527 hours of secretly recorded audio.
Yeah, by 2004, 1,500 hours of Oval Office visits, cabinet meetings, phone calls were now available for the public to listen to. The full, unfiltered dump of the Nixon tapes.
Do you remember where you heard the announcement?
It was on the news. This is economist Burton Abrams.
It was probably a newscast that talked about the Nixon tapes. And I said, this is what I've been waiting for.
Because obviously everyone wants to know about the dirty details, Watergate, the nonsense, the corruption.
Well, everyone else was interested in Watergate. I was interested in monetary policy.
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