As you know by now, having listened to this podcast before, the Federal Reserve plays a major role in the U.S. economy, in large part by dictating interest rates, which affect everything

from mortgages to credit cards to student loans.

And something that makes the Fed somewhat unique is that it's pretty independent from the rest of the

government.

We sort of don't get to know these individuals that run the Fed very well.

They're sort of these characters that operate outside of a whole lot of

influenced by the White House and the rest of Washington. That's our colleague Andrew Restusha.

And the idea is that you're setting interest rates based on your best judgment about what the economy needs and not the whims of a president on a given day and the sort of political need to lower or raise rates.

But recently, some people close to former President Donald Trump have been thinking

about shaking up that system if he wins in November.

So we found out that there's a small group of former Trump administration

officials and other allies of the president who have been discussing

over the last few weeks and months a series of proposals that would essentially undercut the independence

of the Federal Reserve.

They're drafting a pretty dramatic rethinking of the way that the

Fed currently sets interest rates which would involve the President of the United States having some sort of consulting

role in how those interest rates are set. If this plan were to be put in place,

how significant would that be? It would be a pretty dramatic shift.

Now whether it will actually happen, whether it's even possible,

those are really big open questions,

but if you're just thinking about the proposal itself, this would be a really massive shift.

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

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