The Myth of Fed “Independence”

This article is adapted from a lecture delivered at the Revisionist History of War Conference at the Mises Institute, May 17, 2025.

One of the central myths of the modern Federal Reserve is that it is “independent.” The idea is that the Fed is squarely focused on its dual mandate from Congress and is not influenced by politics, presidents, or pressure from the Treasury to keep the government’s borrowing costs low. In a Q&A after his recent speech, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said:

Why We Need to Read Read

Freedom in One Lesson: The Best of Leonard Read
Edited with commentary by Gary Galles
Mises Institute, 2025; xii + 422 pp.

We owe a great debt to Gary Galles, a distinguished free market economist who teaches at Pepperdine University, for collecting no less than 97 of Leonard Read’s articles, accompanied by a commentary of his own in which he shows their relevance to contemporary issues.

From the Editor—July/August 2025

Our great Senior Fellow Alex Pollock has pointed out that the reason Napoleon created the Bank of France was to make sure there was a bank that would always lend him money. Napoleon, of course, needed immense amounts of money because the French state was almost constantly at war during his reign. Having a central bank at his fingertips made it a lot easier for Napoleon to wage his wars on the rest of Europe.

A Simple Solution to the Tariff Wars

US President Donald Trump has kicked off a tit-for-tat tariff war, claiming that foreign tariffs against American goods harm America and that American tariffs against foreign goods are essential to rebuild America’s manufacturing base. Frankly, it’s hard to keep track of all the reasons he instituted his “Liberation Day” tariff binge, except that the supposed benefits of tariffs are a life-long core belief that he refuses to reconsider. So, what are foreign countries to do?