I recently joined Lena Petrova on her World Affairs in Context podcast to talk about the Fed, Jerome Powell’s politics, and the state of the US economy. 

Does the Federal Reserve want independence to serve the interests of the banker class? What role has the Federal Reserve played in US politics, and how does it enable the US government’s out-of-control spending? Why should the Fed be banned from purchasing assets? 

We cover all of this and more: 

The insane neo-Keynesian policies implemented by the Biden-Harris administration have created persistent inflation and record levels of debt with two objectives: to bloat Gross Domestic Product and jobs with public spending and government jobs.

Present-day Austrian economics suffers from a significant and rather interesting problem: a lack of critics. What I mean by this is not that there are not enough trolls, hecklers, and politically-motivated anti-economists. No, I mean that there are very few, if any, real and knowledgeable critics of Austrian economic theory.

In July 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) announced FedNow as their foray into the US dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) payment service. The service is offered to insure immediate CBDC payments are made to a registered individual and/or business buying and selling products and/or services. The FRB offers CBDC as a quick payment convenience to Americans when many see it as a subtle expansion of FRB monetary management power and control.

Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s election reinforced the impression that he and his followers have “taken over” the Republican party. The campaign saw Republicans like Liz and Dick Cheney switch sides and back the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. Now—after Trump won a second term—the right is locked in an impassioned struggle to pressure the president-elect to appoint some Republicans to important executive roles and to freeze others out of the administration entirely.