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The Indicator from Planet Money

It's hard out there for a Fed chair

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.79.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump has flirted with firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell since returning to office, but can he legally do that? Not without good cause. Today on the show, the danger of Trump's amped up attacks on Powell and the Fed's independence.

Follow Chris Hughes on Substack.

Related listening:
A primer on the Federal Reserve's Independence (Apple / Spotify)
Arthur Burns: shorthand for Fed failure?

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

NPR.

0:02.0

This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Whalen Wong.

0:15.0

And I'm Daryan Woods.

0:16.0

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged.

0:21.8

The bank said the labor market is still solid.

0:25.2

But it said there is more uncertainty about the economic outlook.

0:29.2

Fed Chair Jerome Powell also said that if the announced tariffs remain in place,

0:34.4

there's likely to be higher inflation and unemployment, plus a slowdown in growth.

0:39.9

Powell signaled that the Fed is in no hurry to take action. This stance is unlikely to sit well

0:45.9

with President Trump. He wants the Fed to cut rates. And his animus towards Powell is well known.

0:53.9

Take these comments in an interviewed ad over the weekend.

0:56.5

You know, he just doesn't like me because I think he's a total stiff.

1:00.0

And, you know, it's just one of those things.

1:03.9

These insults echoed the verbal diatrives that Trump made against Powell during his first presidency.

1:09.9

Today on the show, an economist and Fed

1:11.8

watcher tells us why Trump's attacks on the Fed chair represent a greater threat than the first time

1:17.2

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1:41.5

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1:46.9

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...

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