Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) took to the Sunday political news shows to heavily criticize a familiar foe — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his handling of monetary policy and regulation responsibilities.
Warren said multiple times that Powell had “failed” at his job amid a potentially looming financial crisis in the wake the collapse of two banks over the past two weeks, which has pushed Warren back into the limelight as she continues her calls for tougher bank regulations and an investigation of the Federal Reserve and the entire regulation system.
She also reiterated on Sunday her negative opinion of Powell, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that that she does not think he should lead the country’s central banking system.
“Look, my views on Jay Powell are well-known at this point. He has had two jobs. One is to deal with monetary policy. One is to deal with regulation. He has failed at both,” she said.
Powell and the Federal Reserve have come under sharp criticism over the past weeks as both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed within days of each other in part due to interest rate hikes that are intended to tame inflation.
Warren said she disagrees with the Fed continuing the raise rates again as it prepares to meet later this week and could approve another interest rate hike.
“I do not think he should raise rates,” Warren said of Powell on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’ve been in the camp for a long time that these extraordinary rate increases that he has taken on these extreme rate increases are something that he should not be doing.”
Warren opposed former President Trump’s nomination of Powell as the Fed chair in 2018, warning that if he was appointed he would weaken banking regulations. Powell, who was reappointed by President Biden this year, has faced numerous Senate hearings where Warren has expressed her concerns about his handling of interest rates and other monetary policies.
Warren said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Powell took a “flamethrower” to banking regulations, again saying that she opposed his nomination because she saw him as wanting to weaken rules banks had to abide by.
Warren also called for an independent investigation of the Federal Reserve and federal financial regulators on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I’m calling for an independent investigation of the Fed and the whole regulatory system here. The Fed doesn’t just get to do its own investigation,” she said.
“I’m calling for the Fed right now to reverse its weakened regulations and to bear down, to look what — at these banks with much more scrutiny,” she continued. “And then I’m also calling on Congress, as you rightly say, to roll back the ability of the Fed to weaken regulations and calling for these CEOs to be held accountable so that we have laws in place to get claw backs of their bonuses, of their giant salaries.”