1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

The selection of Kevin Warsh to serve as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve is not a normal nomination by a normal White House. Do not treat it that way. We are in the middle of an unprecedented and dangerous attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve Board. A president who wants to rule as a king is attempting to illegally terminate one governor and use a criminal investigation to extort or punish another - and is now threatening to fire him, too. And all because they have refused to ignore the damage his policies have done to our economy. The Fed was designed to be independent so that our monetary policy serves the interests of the public, rather than what’s best for the politicians. It is nowhere near a flawless institution, but we have seen in Argentina, Weimar Germany, and Richard Nixon’s America how bad things can get when the executive branch starts pulling the strings of the central bank. We are risking investors giving up on the United States, with consequences that could haunt us for decades. We cannot believe Donald Trump would have put forward Warsh as anything other than a puppet, prepared to do whatever the president instructs. Trump has said himself that “anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman.” His nomination is simply the legal side of an authoritarian power grab, and one that could touch the lives of every American who wants a house, a car, a business or has a credit card. The Senate must not confirm him.