Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pulled no punches in her Sunday attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. She termed his leadership a failure and declared he should be out of a job.
Interviewed on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” the far-left senator explained that Powell had two jobs with the Fed. “One is to deal with monetary policy. One is to deal with regulation. He has failed at both.”
Warren traveled the talk show circuit Sunday and accused Powell of using a “flamethrower” on federal regulations over large banks. She also took him to task for the central bank’s inability to rein in runaway inflation despite numerous interest rate increases.
As is her standard, Warren called for yet more government regulations to control the nation’s financial sector. In the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, many on the left see the opportunity for greater oversight from Washington.
Senator Elizabeth Warren blasts Fed Chair Jerome Powell for “an astonishing list of failures” that contributed to the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank https://t.co/GA0SxT6zmw
— Bloomberg (@business) March 16, 2023
Along with her criticisms, she added that Powell should not remain as chairman of the Fed.
Warren could not resist the Democratic rallying cry and hurled blame at former President Donald Trump. She noted the Republican ran for office pledging to soften federal regulations and accused Powell of taking deregulation even further.
She noted her opposition to Powell’s nomination and her belief that he “was a dangerous man to have in this position.”
After blasting Trump, Powell, and deregulation, Warren said the bank CEOs “did exactly what we expected. They loaded up on risk that boosted their short-term profits.” She said they rewarded themselves with bonuses and raises and then “exploded their banks.”
Warren on Saturday called for a “thorough independent investigation” to get to the root causes for the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank. She asked for preliminary findings from the Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the Fed Board of Governors within 30 days.
And while investigations are certainly warranted, they should look much further than what Warren desires.
For example, SVB was well-known to be a woke institution that showered hundreds of millions onto liberal organizations. It was a patron of BLM-related causes, pouring over $70 million into their coffers.
Just how much influence did this shoddy management practice have on the collapse of the institution? And being such a darling of the left, did this influence the Biden administration’s decision to use taxpayer funds to bail them out of their own mess?
