Saturday, April 19, 2025

The Fed - there is no dissent and that is not good


Jim Bianco generated this interesting chart about the Fed and Chairman Powell. He discussed the power vested in the Fed chairman and whether firing him would be good or bad. His argument is that if Chairman Powell were fired, it would be good for the Fed because there would likely be more dissent from the other FOMC voting members. This argument is a little weird. Creating a crisis with the Fed Chairman would create more chaos, and that would be good for markets and policy. 

I don't buy it, but the core issue is the amount of dissent at the Fed. I think of the old phrase, "If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking".  Why have an FOMC committee if the goal is to have unanimous voting? Granted, this often happens with boards, yet as a public institution with different district banks, it is hard to believe that everyone is or should be in agreement. More dissent will create uncertainty, but if the goal is uniformity, then let's cut the regional bank model and have a small board. 

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