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Chapter 1: What investigation is the DOJ conducting against Jerome Powell?
Federal prosecutors open investigation into federal chair Powell. What? Oh, boy. Yep, they're going after Jerome Powell, which is stirring up a lot of conversation. Rob, is this him saying that it's happening? Go ahead, Rob.
Good evening. On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned, in part, a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings.
I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one, certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve, is above the law.
You.
But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure. This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress's oversight role.
The Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts.
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Chapter 2: How is the $2.5 billion renovation project connected to the scandal?
The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.
This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions, or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation. I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike.
In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum.
We get the idea of what's happening. So, Tom, what's going on over here, Tom?
So what he did was the Fed chairman, Powell, was in front of Congress because to renovate a building, an individual building, suddenly the price tag was $2.5 billion.
Now, when you look at the Department of Defense once got caught paying $6,000 for a simple hammer, yeah, you know that when the government is paying for things, there's graft, there's kickbacks, there's things, there's all these allegations. I'm not saying that there was that on the Fed building. But all those allegations, usually when there's audits, really ā You know, point bad.
So last year, and the ad there, there it is. Federal Reserve blows $2.5 billion on Palace of Versailles headquarters. So this was, they really got caught, Pat. They were, this building is poorly managed. This is embarrassing. And it's embarrassing.
So Powell was over there, said a couple things that in Congress turned out to be not perfectly correct, but no one, including the Congressional Committee, thought that Powell was out and out lying the way, say, Minneapolis-level fraud lying. Mm-hmm.
Well, Trump at the same time has been putting pressure on Powell, as has Fannie and Freddie, you know, Bill Pulte, has been pushing on Powell to lower interest rates to see if we could help the housing market a little bit. or a little bit more. And Trump also wants to lower those rates for, Pat, US debt is coming due and it's gonna be refinanced. He wants it refinanced at lower interest rates.
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Chapter 3: What does the panel say about the Federal Reserve's independence?
So you have to be fair and see optics. You know, I don't know if this is. You just have to know, when is his time up, Rob? Isn't his time coming up in June?
In May of 2026. He's got four months.
It's coming up. It's coming up in the next four months. So I get it. I mean, for four months to do that ā You know, you don't want to just wait four more months to get this just wrapped up and move on. I don't know. Adam, if you got some thoughts on this, we'll go.
Yeah, nobody's surprised to see Trump beefing with Jerome Powell. We've covered this multiple times. I kind of said it's like an East Coast, West Coast rap beef. They're out there throwing threads. Biggie versus Tupac. You go, Biggie versus Tupac? This is more like Tupac versus Sade. So the reality is we shouldn't have Jerome Powell speaking.
The Fed doesn't speak unless there's some major problems, usually, unless they're announcing some major announcement. You know, monetary policy via the Fed, they have two primary components. Setting the interest rate, which Trump is basically pissed about. Right now, the current Fed fund rate is around three and a half, three... Maybe four at the most.
The prime rate is around six and a half, seven. And the number two, unemployment. Unemployment is basically right where we need it to be, under 5%, I think around four, four and a half percent. As much as I give Trump credit, and I'm completely all in on the Trump MAGA 2.0 state of affairs in America, I don't like what he's doing with Powell. I think Powell has overall done a good job.
Could he lower interest rates? Yeah. Should he? Maybe. But he's not going to jail.
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Chapter 4: How does political pressure affect the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions?
He's not going to get in trouble. The worst that's going to happen to him is exactly what he's dealing with, Trump's pressure and intimidation, and he has four more months until he can go retire.
Okay, let me tell you what's going on and who the real MVP in America is the last four weeks, the last three weeks. You know who the real MVP in America is? That unfortunately, they will not get the credit. They will not be talked about. You will not know their names. You will not be able to give to their GoFundMe. You will not be able to do anything with those guys.
You know who the real MVP the last few weeks has been in America? The Delta Force. The Delta Force. When I was in the Army, I asked my orders to be, I was going to go be 18 Delta, fifth group. I did all my interviews. I got my orders. I was going to reenlist six years, go to DLI, go to Sears School, go to...
you know airborne go to uh uh special forces and then i was gonna go straight to vicenza italy to be in that area my friend ends up getting the orders he ends up becoming delta the stuff you're hearing about on how they're going in in venezuela and how they got them the reports that are coming out unreal and by the way you know who's watching that very quickly coming in iran better be watching very closely because our delta force is really strong if they want to do something they could get a lot of stuff done so guess what is back
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This is the USA on the front, American flag on the side. Future looks bright on the back. And then you got future looks bright here. You can go back on this link, Rob, if you can put it below. We also have the shirts to go with it. Go back on that link. Page as well, it's right there. There's the shirts to go with it. There's the different kind of hats for women, for men.
Go a little bit lower if you could, Rob. But if you haven't yet ordered one of these USA hats, buy one for yourself or a friend, for a family member who loves America. Anybody who wears this with the USA being lifted, they love these hats. One of the fan favorites that we have. Click on the link below, order a few. Give it away to your friends, colleagues, and employees.
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