Our lane and sticking to it, the guts of how this economy works is where we start today.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzdahl. It is Wednesday today. This one is the 19th of February.

It is always to have you along, everybody. This program, as I've said a couple of times over the past couple of weeks, cannot and will not chase every pronouncement that comes out of the White House.

We can and will, though, cover decisions by the Trump administration that are of systemic

economic importance, which is how we find ourselves starting today with an executive order

entitled Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies, in which President

Trump claims for himself direct control over key agencies in this economy. Think the Federal

Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Fed, agencies that have traditionally

and congressionally exercised independent authority.

Sarah Binder is a professor of political science at George Washington University.

Your professor, welcome to the program. Good to have you on.

Great. Thanks for having me.

With the understanding that Congress did set up these agencies as independent agencies,

I guess the first question is, can the president do what he is purporting to do here?

Well, the president can do it if nobody stops him, right? It's a power grab this time at the expense of what we call these

independent agencies. The question is, will anyone in Congress stand up to him? And at some point,

this will certainly end up before the federal courts? And so, will the courts be able to constrain the president? That we just don't know.

Help us understand, would you, why Congress decided decades and decades ago, that this economy needs independent regulatory agencies to help this economy run?

Well, keep in mind that the very first of these independent agencies were really the end

of the 19th century.

And it was a period, like today, of pretty high partisanship, right?

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