Bessent Calls to Take Power Away From the Fed
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent highlights risks to Federal Reserve independence from its expanded roles and urges focus on core mandates with other agencies overseeing bank supervision.
- On September 5, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized the Federal Reserve's role in regulating the nation's banks and called for major reforms.
- Bessent highlighted that the Fed was gradually given more oversight over banks after crises like the Great Depression, leading to conflicts in its mission and independence.
- He argued the Fed now regulates, lends to, and sets banks' profitability, which blurs accountability, and he advocated transferring bank supervision to other agencies like the FDIC and OCC.
- In the Wall Street Journal, Bessent argued that the Federal Reserve’s combined roles of overseeing, providing loans to, and determining the financial performance of the banks it supervises create a conflict of interest that undermines clear responsibility and threatens its independence.
- The administration is increasing pressure on the Fed’s independence, with ongoing leadership interviews and Bessent positioned as a possible Powell successor amid calls for an independent review.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Bessent Calls for Curb on Fed Authority, Accuses It of Distorting Economy
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ramped up his criticism of the Federal Reserve on Sept. 5, accusing it of running risky “gain-of-function” monetary experiments that warped financial markets, rewarded asset holders, and eroded the central bank’s independence. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, and a longer essay and interview for The International Economy, Bessent said the Fed should be stripped of its bank-supervision powers, forced to scale back …
Scrutinizing the Fed: Scott Bessent's Call for Reform
Scrutinizing the Fed: Scott Bessent's Call for Reform U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called for an extensive review of the Federal Reserve's operations, criticizing its influence on the economy and accusing it of partisanship. Bessent's comments come amid the Trump administration's attempts to exert greater control over the central bank.Bessent suggests that the Fed should step back from bank supervision duties and reduce its economic…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calls for review of Federal Reserve
Bessent argued that the core missions of the banking system are promoting full employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates and that it has been distracted from these missions.
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