Trump's firing of Lisa Cook is the actual power grab we only feared from Joe Biden.
How Trump could give the Fed a MAGA makeover:
... Fed watchers say a Trump-appointed majority on the Fed Board could then exert greater influence over future decisions on interest rates by using a little-known process.
While it’s typically a routine event that gets little attention, every five years the Fed Board must approve the new terms of regional Fed presidents, who vote on a rotational basis on interest rates.
That event is coming up soon, with the terms of all 12 regional Fed presidents scheduled to expire – simultaneously – at the end of February.
That means, in theory, a Trump-nominated Fed Board could reject regional presidents, for whatever reason they wish, or no reason at all.
“The President could push his majority to reject reserve bank presidents unless they agree to back lower rates and are comfortable with more White House influence over monetary policy,” Jaret Seiberg, financial services policy analyst at TD Cowen Washington Research Group, wrote in a note to clients this week. “That would give Trump a more cooperative FOMC,” he wrote, referring to the Fed’s rate-setting committee.
While the Fed chair gets all the attention, decisions on interest rates are voted on by all 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee. The committee consists of the seven members of the Fed Board, as well as five regional Fed presidents: the New York Fed president and four rotating regional presidents. ...
