Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, January 12th, and today we are talking about Powell being prosecuted. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Well, man, I don't know what to say.

If you thought there was any chance that 2026 was somehow going to be less exciting than 2025,

I've got the capture and extraction of a foreign president, NATO setting up to defend Greenland

against the U.S., ice protests all around the country, whatever the hell is happening in Iran,

and now some equally crazy macroeconomic

news. On Sunday night, the New York Times reported that Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal

Reserve, has been served a subpoena and is under criminal investigation from the DOJ. The investigation

stems from the renovation of the Fed's headquarters in Washington. You might recall Powell

taking President Trump on a tour of the construction in July, with both men decked out in white hard hats. At the time, Trump claimed the cost of the project had reached $3.1 billion up from a projected $2.7 billion. Powell questioned the numbers live on air in front of the press, claiming they included a previous renovation that was finished five years ago. According to the New York Times,

the new investigation centers around whether Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project

during oversight hearings. So the criminal charge would then presumably be contempt of Congress.

While historically, this was a rare charge, it's been deployed multiple times over recent years.

Steve Bannon served four months in prison for contempt, and former Attorney

General Merrick Garland avoided prosecution on the charge. In there, reporting, the New York Times

offered an opinion. Starting an investigation is one matter, they wrote. Presenting sufficient

evidence to secure an indictment from a federal grand jury or making it stick is another.

And at this point, this is something of a pattern. This administration has

pursued multiple political prosecutions over the course of the last year. New York Attorney General

Latisha James and Fed Governor Lisa Cook were both indicted for mortgage fraud last year,

with the James case already thrown out of court. Within minutes of the New York Times article being

...