Jerome Powell Under CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION (What You Need To Know)
Summary
Macro Shock: DOJ’s criminal probe into Fed Chair Powell under the Trump administration raises policy uncertainty and market volatility.
Gold: The guest highlights gold’s surge and frames it as a hedge against counterparty and systemic risk rather than strictly a deficits/debasement trade.
Silver: Silver rallied sharply; the guest disclosed owning silver and expects continued upside driven by speculative flows and risk dynamics.
Metals vs Energy: Divergence noted as metals rise while oil remains around $60, challenging a simple 1970s-style inflation narrative.
Policy Regime Risk: Concern about a creeping Fed–Treasury merger, MMT, and potential CBDC adoption, implying more central planning and long-term inflation risk.
Rates Perspective: Emphasizes that the Fed controls only the overnight rate and that long-end yields and real-economy rates hinge on growth and inflation expectations.
Near-Term Outlook: Leans disinflationary in the next six months despite longer-term inflation risks from increased policy control.
Transcript
Hello fellow rebel capitalists. Hope you are well. Never a dull moment in the Trump administration. That is for sure. Today we got the news. Jerome Pal under criminal investigation. What the hell is going on? Is that dude going to jail? Maybe, maybe not. [laughter] You never [clears throat] It's 2026. What a great way to start the year. At least there's a lot of entertainment value, right? Okay, let's get into kind of what the mainstream is, how they're framing this, and then we'll shoot over to Zero Hedge. I think Zero Hedge article is more fact driven, let's say. So, we're going to start with our good pals over at CNBC. Fed chair pal says he's under criminal investigation, won't bow to Trump intimidation. This is really interesting and I'm going to wait to kind of think this through and connect the dots when we go over to the Zero Hedge article because there's um is like I said it's more fact driven. I think there's a lot of opinion and editorial here in the CNBC article. But key talking points, Fed Chair Powell is under federal criminal investigation related to the $2.5 billion renovation the central bank's headquarters. Pal said the probe was a result of the Fed setting interest rates based on our assessment of what will serve the public rather than following the preferences of President Donald Trump. So usually Jerome Powell kind of sits back and plays the more professional role, let's say. You know, he doesn't really get these sparring matches with Trump who's um you know, whether you hate him or like him, whatever. He's uh Trump is very reactionary. No one can deny that, you know, with his truth social and whatnot. Uh Jerome Pal pretty much the opposite, but this time Pal kind of came out swimming swinging as well. Maybe been pushed too far, whatever. Then Senator Thomas Tillis of North Carolina uh and banking committee members said he would oppose any nominee. By the way, this guy's a Republican. Looks like any nominee by Trump to replace Pal and any for Fed board nominee until this legal matter is fully resolved. So, let's now go over to and he actually came out. They did a tweet on uh X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it today, where Pal addressed this situation specifically, but they've got the quotes over on Zero Hedge. So, let's shoot over there. And here you go. Fed subpoenenaed as DOJ, the Department of Justice launches criminal probe into Jerome Powell, who vows to stand firm. So the first thing I highlighted as the New York Times first reported the US Attorney Office District of Columbia has opened criminal investigation to PAL over the central bank's renovation of its Washington headquarters. So there's going to be two sides here, right? There there's going to be kind of the MAGA crowd and and maybe some others too that are like, okay, this is completely over the top as far as this $2.5 billion renovation and they need to be held accountable. And if a criminal probe is what it takes, then fine. Uh Trump is just doing his job and making sure that they're not wasting taxpayer dollars. Now, I'm not saying that's my position. I'm saying that's probably kind of the the MAGA position here. And then the other position is going to be, oh, this is just Trump intimidation and it's just, you know, he could care less about the $2.5 billion renovation. It's more so sending a message to not just any Fed chair, but any corporate CEO, any politician, anyone out there that if you don't do exactly what Trump wants you to do when he wants you to do it, and and he and if Trump even sees an iota, just a little opening like that, Trump is going to take it and try to make your life hell. And again, kind of just sending a message to anyone. I mean, even foreign leaders, foreign leaders, CEOs, [laughter] doesn't matter, but anyone, Republicans, Democrats, this is a way for Trump really to send a message of intimidation, let's say. And so, those are going to be the two sides of the argument. Where I stand, honestly, probably right in the middle. I I think it's both. I I think it's definitely Trump using intimidation tactics, which he's used before, you know, and uh but and it's also the fact that the Fed's wasting $2.5 billion and they absolutely absolutely need to be held accountable. I mean, I'm wearing an end the Fed hat for heaven's sakes, right? You guys know where I stand on this, but I don't want to just, you know, in investigate Jerome Powell for spending 2.5 billion. I want to end the Fed. I want to literally I don't want it anymore. I want the market to set interest rates. So, I wish that Trump was was taking that approach. But I think that Well, let me take that back because I think if Trump ended the Fed, what he would want to do is just have the Fed's duties absorbed by the Treasury. And that's what I do definitely don't want. I I would rather have the Fed than [laughter] have everything part of the Treasury because that's the first step to MMT. So there's a lot of threads that we can pull here, right? It's it's not just kind of Trump versus PAL because I think even after Trump this sense of precedence where they're going to merge like it's it's UBI, it's MMT. I mean, at some point in the next 5, 10 years or whatever, my base case is that they will absolutely absolutely merge the Fed and the Treasury. Maybe they won't do it on paper, but effectively that's what it will be because the president, whoever it is at the time, will control both entities. Let's get down into the article here. Uh Trump said that DOJ the DOJ's Fed subpoena nothing to do with interest rates. Come on. Come on. I I'm sure I'm sure that if Look, this is the way Trump this is his MO. This is the way he operates. And what again, it's nothing against Trump. This is And by the way, I got to take my hat off to him for a dude that's 79 years. I think Trump's 79. I mean, I've never seen a human I forget a president. I've never seen a human being do this much stuff. [laughter] Never. Have you? I mean, even if you hate Trump, you got to be like, "Wow, for 79 years old, I mean, that guy is You want to talk about someone taking action? Holy cow. the the guy's spinning more plates [laughter] and doing more things in the first year of his presidency than maybe in the last 20 years of excluding him, you know, presidents combined. It it's it's like it's head spinning [laughter] every single day. He's doing one or two things that are are just absolutely unheard of. So, man, guy's got a lot of energy, that's for sure. He is definitely an action taker. For those of you who want to make money, those of you young people, I mean, that's what I would take from Trump's presidency. Look at how much action he takes. People who are very successful in life, uh, this this is this is how they operate for sure. Okay, getting back to this though, more importantly, this is Trump's MMO. He he he uses intimidation and and the way Trump works is if you do exactly what he says when he says it, he says, "You're the greatest. You're unbelievable. You're amazing. The American people are lucky to have you." Blah blah blah blah. You can spend $4 trillion on a renovation and Trump doesn't care as long as you do exactly what he wants. And then again, you're the greatest. You're the most amazing. It's incredible. But then as soon as you do something he doesn't like, then all of a sudden you're the worst. You're horrible. You're an idiot. You're a [laughter] You spent too much money on the renovation. I mean, this is just the way he It's Trump. It's Trump. The And now I'm getting back to the article. The investigation escalates Trump's longunning feud with Powell, whom the president has continually attacked for resisting his demands to slash interest rates significantly. And let's not forget at the end of the day, this is nonsense. This is this because and why here's why I say that. Because you guys know from watching my videos, the Fed sets one interest rate. They set the overnight rate. So this is the interbank basically the interbank lending rate. Okay? This is not the 10-year Treasury yield. In fact, we have seen the 10-year Treasury yield do the opposite of what the Fed is doing. Let's remember in 2024, the Fed drop by 100 basis points. And what did the 10-year Treasury do? It went up by 100 basis points. You see, and the main reason why Trump wants interest rates lower, he wants mortgage rates lower. He wants the interest rates in the real economy lower. Okay, great. But that doesn't really have anything to do with the Fed. Like, like Trump is making the mistake. I don't really know why, but it it's obviously a very very common mistake. I mean, the mainstream media does it all the time. People on social media, and that's assuming that the Fed controls interest rates. Well, the Fed controls the rates. So, if the Fed drops by 50 basis points, well, then all the rates come down by 50 basis points. That's not how it works. Not at all. So then you have to ask yourself, okay, now does maybe the Fed's decision play out through the first, you know, the year, uh, maybe the six-month yields, the the year. Okay, maybe you go out a year or so, maybe if you want to argue two years, but how dramatically does that impact the real economy at the end of the day? I mean, it really doesn't. What really impacts the curve is the long end, and that's growth in inflation expectations. And it doesn't it it doesn't really have anything to do with the Fed dropping rates. Doesn't have anything to do with QE or QT or anything like that. Now, if the Fed dropping rates increases growth and inflation expectations, then you're going to get interest rates going up. So that's why you often get this inverse relationship between what the Fed's doing dropping and interest rates going up or sometimes Fed uh increasing interest rates and long and dropping such as the inversion of the yield curve. So this is just this whole thing uh this emphasis around the Fed has to cut rates. They should be lower lower. it it it really doesn't hold any weight when you look at it just using a little bit of scrutiny and understanding that the Fed really doesn't control the rates that are most important to the economy. So, it's a mood issue. I mean, at the end of the day, it's just kind of kabuki theater and and that's why I mean Trump has to know that. I He's got smart people around him. Bent should know that. Bent definitely knows that. So, that that's why I I think this is definitely both. You know, should the Fed be held accountable? Absolutely they should. But not just for spending 2.5 billion. Much more so. They should be held accountable for breaking violating the Federal Reserve Act, which is what they've done over and over and over and over again. Especially, especially, especially in 2020 when they set up the special purpose vehicles to buy corporate debt or to buy whatever they were doing that they weren't supposed to buy, right? that the or I may you could go down the list of the things that they've done that have violated the Federal Reserve Act, but you can definitely start with the Surveysa sickness in 2020. I if if we're suing the Fed, you know, and that's why we did that foyer request uh myself and and and Robert Barnes. But if if you're going after the Fed, go after the Fed for what they're really really doing that's screwing things up, and that's bailing out the system and not allowing free market economics to work. Okay. In a striking public response to the New York Times Post, they've got a quote from Pal. So, I'm going to read these quotes to you guys. Uh, this new threat, there's Pal. This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Fed buildings. It is not about con uh con Congress's oversight role. The Fed through testimony and other public disclosures made every effort to keep Congress informed about renovation project. Those are the pretext. And you know, look, Trump has used lawsuits throughout his whole entire career. And even if he loses, I mean, if you just want to strictly look at it through the lens of him becoming more powerful and having more say so and what happens, this does the job because nobody wants to go through a lawsuit. Nobody. It's a It's a massive headache except for Trump because he's got 50 of them going at all times and he's been doing that for the last [laughter] 60 years or whatever. So for him, it's just like it's just a normal day. for most people, they don't want to go through this lawsuit because it's a big, uh, it takes time out of your schedule. It's a big pain in the butt. So, uh, they want to try to avoid that at all costs. So, if they know that that's kind of hanging over their head and that Trump, if you don't do what he says, he's going to, if he can, you know, for any reason, he's going to sue you and make your life hell. Um, it really, really, really sends a message even if that's not Trump's intent, which come on, let's be honest. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based. So here's where I if if I'm pal, I don't know if I would have said this. Now you can say this, you know, you can when you talk to the lawyers or whatever, but now you're accusing Trump of doing something. Now I think you're just trying to sway public opinion. So do I agree with Powell here? Yeah. But how do you prove that? Right? Like how do you prove that Trump is doing this as a result of uh the Fed not obeying his interest rate suggestions? Let's say you can't prove that. You got to get in his head. And that's why Trump is extremely extremely smart in suing him for something that he can sue him for instead of uh you know suing directly for what is most likely the um actually I'm gonna take that back. I was going to say is most likely the reason Trump was doing it. And I don't even think it's about interest rates. I think the reason Trump is doing this is really to send a message to people that you got to do what he says or he's going to make your life very difficult. Pal says, "I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one certainly not certainly not is that AI?" H that's got to be AI there. No one certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve is above the law, but this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of administration threats and ongoing pressures. Yeah, I mean I [clears throat] I get what he's saying, but again, I I think this is all kind of just a back and forth. Is Pal going to go to jail? No, I don't think anything's really going to come of this. It's just lawyers making trillions of dollars just duking it out, going back and forth. But Trump is his objective is already achieved. He sent the message to everybody. And for Pal, you know, I don't think he's really going to he's I don't think he's really going to suffer any legal consequences as a result. And then with I think this was interesting. I'm skipping around here, but I I saw this quote down here that I wanted to bring up where zero hedge I think there's editorial here. Ironically, by escalation, the Fed against Pal, Trump may have made Pal's decision to stick around and mess with the president's plans for ultra dovish Feds problematic. So, I didn't realize that Pal has the decision. That's kind of what they're implying here, right, as to whether or not he wants to stick around. And look at at at at some point Pal's ego has to come into play. Like come on, man. And so he might be like, "Okay, Trump, you want to play hard ball? I'm not leaving. F you." And and let's duke this out. Right. So, we'll have to see how this plays out. There's a lot of moving parts here, a lot of drama, that's for sure. But let's go back to kind of the nuts and bolts of what's going on here. Zero Hedge also says Powell did not discuss the fact that he has delayed action during the surveys sickness sparked the biggest bout of runaway inflation in 40 40 years. Yeah. But again, let's say the Fed would have increased interest rates further. Would we not have had inflation? Of course we would have because the inflation was a result primarily of the politicians destroying global supply chains. And even if they would have increased interest rates, that would not have dropped the supply or that would not have increased the supply of lumber as an example. Remember when lumber just went parabolic? That would not have put more stuff on the grocery store shelves, right? If anything, that would have decreased the amount of stuff, right? So, you know, I don't really think that and what happened when they increased interest rates, the long end pretty much stayed the same or, you know, might have gone up a little but not that much. So, the F even if they would have hiked before this, I don't know that it would have really done anything. But the the main problem here is just this idea that the Fed controls interest rates because that's what they're implying by this statement and we need to completely divorce ourselves from that idea because it's nonsense. Getting back to this uh presided over the biggest insider trading scandal. We can't deny that. I mean that's pal. Look, you you you got to fess up to that one, bud. Which led to multiple resignations at the central bank and was explicitly politically political by cutting rates in September 2024. I don't think he was. And again, did it matter? No. Like like he cut by 50. So is did that somehow create a boom in the economy? Of course it didn't. That's that's craziness. Two months before November election in a bid to sway the vote for Camala. Again, I don't think he did that. Okay. Ironically, the last dramatic escalation, the war between the White House and Mariner Eckles building, is that where the Fed is? Uh, which are located less than a mile apart, takes place even as Pal is doing what Trump has wanted all along, cutting rates. And I think this is a very good point. A very good point. Pal is cutting rates. I mean, he's cut uh what, 150 basis points since September of 2024. So, I I think the argument that even if you want to argue this is about Trump getting interest rates lower, I don't even know if that's valid. I think it goes back to kind of my base case. And this is Trump just flexing and just sending a message to people, whether they're foreign leaders, politicians, people at the Fed, or corporate CEOs, that if you don't do what he says when he says it, he's going to make your life a living hell. He's going to do everything he can to make your life a living hell. I mean, ask Thomas Massie, right? Ask Marjorie Taylor Green. I do the same thing. Let's keep going down here. Now, let's see what happened in markets because silver is up or was up huge today. All disclosure, I own silver. I bought uh when did I buy? I I did a post on Rebel Capitalists Pro, but it was a week ago or something. Let's go to the homepage. We've got um the market itself is ah down a little bit. S&P pretty much flat. NASDAQ up slightly. Gold launching over 4600 an ounce and is exactly what you'd expect gold to do. You know, this shows you that it's not really about debt and deficits or anything like that. It's more so about just counterparty risk, just risk in general. That's really the main driver in my view for gold. And I think that silver is just kind of tagging along and just getting some speculative bid from crypto, but that doesn't mean it ain't going up. Look at this. [laughter] It's up to 85. So, thank I mean that was a good purchase on my end. I'm glad I bought that last week. Copper up as well. But you know what's really interesting because I know what everyone says. This is all about the debasement trade or you know growth in inflation expectations increasing and or debt and deficits and blah blah blah blah blah. But I don't know that you can really argue that well because you look at the metals and it looks like that for sure. But look at energy and then energy you see the exact opposite. So if this really was about the 1970s oil would not be trading at 60 bucks there. There's no way. So a a very wild macro environment just very wild what's happening between the Federal Reserve and the White House. But the main takeaway guys, I think this just shows you that we can say that it's almost inevitable. It might not be imminent, but it's definitely inevitable in my view. That the Fed is going to merge with the government and they're going to merge with the Treasury and it's going to go straight MMT and whoever the president is after Trump, they're going to control interest rates. They're going to control QE. They're going to control QT. They're going to control absolutely everything. This is going to be more central planning. And it's going to open up the door for MMT, a CBDC. It's going to I mean, this is just we've been talking about this since 2019. And every single year, we get closer and closer and closer and closer. We're definitely not getting further away from that. the odds, the probabilities every single year are increasing that we get this kind of the the president, you know, the king, whatever you want to call him, uh just controlling everything, including every single thing the Fed currently does and every single thing the Treasury currently does. And I don't know how long term that doesn't lead to consumer price inflation. Although over the next six months, I'd probably be in the disinflationary camp. We'll have to see when the CPI comes out tomorrow, right? So, a lot of things to talk about, guys. I want to let everyone know, big bombshell here. We just started selling tickets to Rebel Capitalist Live 2026. Woohoo. So, uh, we did some pre-sales over that webinar I did a couple months ago. So, we've already got about 200 people signed up. But if you go over, I think Josh Oh, that's not it. Here we go. Uh Josh is putting the link in the chat and he'll put a link in the description right here. You guys can check it out. It's May 29th through the 31st in Orlando, Florida. You can see what the insiders are saying and you can see who we have lined up for uh this year. Darius Dale is going to be new. Uh most of these other guys you're familiar with here. And uh we've got some that we're going to announce that we haven't announced yet, but you guys can check out this page, get your ticket ASAP because as we get closer to the event, you know, the prices will obviously increase. All right, guys. On that bombshell, enjoy the rest of your afternoon. As always, make sure you're standing for freedom, liberty, free market, capitalism. We'll see you in the next video.
Jerome Powell Under CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION (What You Need To Know)
Summary
Transcript
Hello fellow rebel capitalists. Hope you are well. Never a dull moment in the Trump administration. That is for sure. Today we got the news. Jerome Pal under criminal investigation. What the hell is going on? Is that dude going to jail? Maybe, maybe not. [laughter] You never [clears throat] It's 2026. What a great way to start the year. At least there's a lot of entertainment value, right? Okay, let's get into kind of what the mainstream is, how they're framing this, and then we'll shoot over to Zero Hedge. I think Zero Hedge article is more fact driven, let's say. So, we're going to start with our good pals over at CNBC. Fed chair pal says he's under criminal investigation, won't bow to Trump intimidation. This is really interesting and I'm going to wait to kind of think this through and connect the dots when we go over to the Zero Hedge article because there's um is like I said it's more fact driven. I think there's a lot of opinion and editorial here in the CNBC article. But key talking points, Fed Chair Powell is under federal criminal investigation related to the $2.5 billion renovation the central bank's headquarters. Pal said the probe was a result of the Fed setting interest rates based on our assessment of what will serve the public rather than following the preferences of President Donald Trump. So usually Jerome Powell kind of sits back and plays the more professional role, let's say. You know, he doesn't really get these sparring matches with Trump who's um you know, whether you hate him or like him, whatever. He's uh Trump is very reactionary. No one can deny that, you know, with his truth social and whatnot. Uh Jerome Pal pretty much the opposite, but this time Pal kind of came out swimming swinging as well. Maybe been pushed too far, whatever. Then Senator Thomas Tillis of North Carolina uh and banking committee members said he would oppose any nominee. By the way, this guy's a Republican. Looks like any nominee by Trump to replace Pal and any for Fed board nominee until this legal matter is fully resolved. So, let's now go over to and he actually came out. They did a tweet on uh X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it today, where Pal addressed this situation specifically, but they've got the quotes over on Zero Hedge. So, let's shoot over there. And here you go. Fed subpoenenaed as DOJ, the Department of Justice launches criminal probe into Jerome Powell, who vows to stand firm. So the first thing I highlighted as the New York Times first reported the US Attorney Office District of Columbia has opened criminal investigation to PAL over the central bank's renovation of its Washington headquarters. So there's going to be two sides here, right? There there's going to be kind of the MAGA crowd and and maybe some others too that are like, okay, this is completely over the top as far as this $2.5 billion renovation and they need to be held accountable. And if a criminal probe is what it takes, then fine. Uh Trump is just doing his job and making sure that they're not wasting taxpayer dollars. Now, I'm not saying that's my position. I'm saying that's probably kind of the the MAGA position here. And then the other position is going to be, oh, this is just Trump intimidation and it's just, you know, he could care less about the $2.5 billion renovation. It's more so sending a message to not just any Fed chair, but any corporate CEO, any politician, anyone out there that if you don't do exactly what Trump wants you to do when he wants you to do it, and and he and if Trump even sees an iota, just a little opening like that, Trump is going to take it and try to make your life hell. And again, kind of just sending a message to anyone. I mean, even foreign leaders, foreign leaders, CEOs, [laughter] doesn't matter, but anyone, Republicans, Democrats, this is a way for Trump really to send a message of intimidation, let's say. And so, those are going to be the two sides of the argument. Where I stand, honestly, probably right in the middle. I I think it's both. I I think it's definitely Trump using intimidation tactics, which he's used before, you know, and uh but and it's also the fact that the Fed's wasting $2.5 billion and they absolutely absolutely need to be held accountable. I mean, I'm wearing an end the Fed hat for heaven's sakes, right? You guys know where I stand on this, but I don't want to just, you know, in investigate Jerome Powell for spending 2.5 billion. I want to end the Fed. I want to literally I don't want it anymore. I want the market to set interest rates. So, I wish that Trump was was taking that approach. But I think that Well, let me take that back because I think if Trump ended the Fed, what he would want to do is just have the Fed's duties absorbed by the Treasury. And that's what I do definitely don't want. I I would rather have the Fed than [laughter] have everything part of the Treasury because that's the first step to MMT. So there's a lot of threads that we can pull here, right? It's it's not just kind of Trump versus PAL because I think even after Trump this sense of precedence where they're going to merge like it's it's UBI, it's MMT. I mean, at some point in the next 5, 10 years or whatever, my base case is that they will absolutely absolutely merge the Fed and the Treasury. Maybe they won't do it on paper, but effectively that's what it will be because the president, whoever it is at the time, will control both entities. Let's get down into the article here. Uh Trump said that DOJ the DOJ's Fed subpoena nothing to do with interest rates. Come on. Come on. I I'm sure I'm sure that if Look, this is the way Trump this is his MO. This is the way he operates. And what again, it's nothing against Trump. This is And by the way, I got to take my hat off to him for a dude that's 79 years. I think Trump's 79. I mean, I've never seen a human I forget a president. I've never seen a human being do this much stuff. [laughter] Never. Have you? I mean, even if you hate Trump, you got to be like, "Wow, for 79 years old, I mean, that guy is You want to talk about someone taking action? Holy cow. the the guy's spinning more plates [laughter] and doing more things in the first year of his presidency than maybe in the last 20 years of excluding him, you know, presidents combined. It it's it's like it's head spinning [laughter] every single day. He's doing one or two things that are are just absolutely unheard of. So, man, guy's got a lot of energy, that's for sure. He is definitely an action taker. For those of you who want to make money, those of you young people, I mean, that's what I would take from Trump's presidency. Look at how much action he takes. People who are very successful in life, uh, this this is this is how they operate for sure. Okay, getting back to this though, more importantly, this is Trump's MMO. He he he uses intimidation and and the way Trump works is if you do exactly what he says when he says it, he says, "You're the greatest. You're unbelievable. You're amazing. The American people are lucky to have you." Blah blah blah blah. You can spend $4 trillion on a renovation and Trump doesn't care as long as you do exactly what he wants. And then again, you're the greatest. You're the most amazing. It's incredible. But then as soon as you do something he doesn't like, then all of a sudden you're the worst. You're horrible. You're an idiot. You're a [laughter] You spent too much money on the renovation. I mean, this is just the way he It's Trump. It's Trump. The And now I'm getting back to the article. The investigation escalates Trump's longunning feud with Powell, whom the president has continually attacked for resisting his demands to slash interest rates significantly. And let's not forget at the end of the day, this is nonsense. This is this because and why here's why I say that. Because you guys know from watching my videos, the Fed sets one interest rate. They set the overnight rate. So this is the interbank basically the interbank lending rate. Okay? This is not the 10-year Treasury yield. In fact, we have seen the 10-year Treasury yield do the opposite of what the Fed is doing. Let's remember in 2024, the Fed drop by 100 basis points. And what did the 10-year Treasury do? It went up by 100 basis points. You see, and the main reason why Trump wants interest rates lower, he wants mortgage rates lower. He wants the interest rates in the real economy lower. Okay, great. But that doesn't really have anything to do with the Fed. Like, like Trump is making the mistake. I don't really know why, but it it's obviously a very very common mistake. I mean, the mainstream media does it all the time. People on social media, and that's assuming that the Fed controls interest rates. Well, the Fed controls the rates. So, if the Fed drops by 50 basis points, well, then all the rates come down by 50 basis points. That's not how it works. Not at all. So then you have to ask yourself, okay, now does maybe the Fed's decision play out through the first, you know, the year, uh, maybe the six-month yields, the the year. Okay, maybe you go out a year or so, maybe if you want to argue two years, but how dramatically does that impact the real economy at the end of the day? I mean, it really doesn't. What really impacts the curve is the long end, and that's growth in inflation expectations. And it doesn't it it doesn't really have anything to do with the Fed dropping rates. Doesn't have anything to do with QE or QT or anything like that. Now, if the Fed dropping rates increases growth and inflation expectations, then you're going to get interest rates going up. So that's why you often get this inverse relationship between what the Fed's doing dropping and interest rates going up or sometimes Fed uh increasing interest rates and long and dropping such as the inversion of the yield curve. So this is just this whole thing uh this emphasis around the Fed has to cut rates. They should be lower lower. it it it really doesn't hold any weight when you look at it just using a little bit of scrutiny and understanding that the Fed really doesn't control the rates that are most important to the economy. So, it's a mood issue. I mean, at the end of the day, it's just kind of kabuki theater and and that's why I mean Trump has to know that. I He's got smart people around him. Bent should know that. Bent definitely knows that. So, that that's why I I think this is definitely both. You know, should the Fed be held accountable? Absolutely they should. But not just for spending 2.5 billion. Much more so. They should be held accountable for breaking violating the Federal Reserve Act, which is what they've done over and over and over and over again. Especially, especially, especially in 2020 when they set up the special purpose vehicles to buy corporate debt or to buy whatever they were doing that they weren't supposed to buy, right? that the or I may you could go down the list of the things that they've done that have violated the Federal Reserve Act, but you can definitely start with the Surveysa sickness in 2020. I if if we're suing the Fed, you know, and that's why we did that foyer request uh myself and and and Robert Barnes. But if if you're going after the Fed, go after the Fed for what they're really really doing that's screwing things up, and that's bailing out the system and not allowing free market economics to work. Okay. In a striking public response to the New York Times Post, they've got a quote from Pal. So, I'm going to read these quotes to you guys. Uh, this new threat, there's Pal. This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Fed buildings. It is not about con uh con Congress's oversight role. The Fed through testimony and other public disclosures made every effort to keep Congress informed about renovation project. Those are the pretext. And you know, look, Trump has used lawsuits throughout his whole entire career. And even if he loses, I mean, if you just want to strictly look at it through the lens of him becoming more powerful and having more say so and what happens, this does the job because nobody wants to go through a lawsuit. Nobody. It's a It's a massive headache except for Trump because he's got 50 of them going at all times and he's been doing that for the last [laughter] 60 years or whatever. So for him, it's just like it's just a normal day. for most people, they don't want to go through this lawsuit because it's a big, uh, it takes time out of your schedule. It's a big pain in the butt. So, uh, they want to try to avoid that at all costs. So, if they know that that's kind of hanging over their head and that Trump, if you don't do what he says, he's going to, if he can, you know, for any reason, he's going to sue you and make your life hell. Um, it really, really, really sends a message even if that's not Trump's intent, which come on, let's be honest. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based. So here's where I if if I'm pal, I don't know if I would have said this. Now you can say this, you know, you can when you talk to the lawyers or whatever, but now you're accusing Trump of doing something. Now I think you're just trying to sway public opinion. So do I agree with Powell here? Yeah. But how do you prove that? Right? Like how do you prove that Trump is doing this as a result of uh the Fed not obeying his interest rate suggestions? Let's say you can't prove that. You got to get in his head. And that's why Trump is extremely extremely smart in suing him for something that he can sue him for instead of uh you know suing directly for what is most likely the um actually I'm gonna take that back. I was going to say is most likely the reason Trump was doing it. And I don't even think it's about interest rates. I think the reason Trump is doing this is really to send a message to people that you got to do what he says or he's going to make your life very difficult. Pal says, "I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one certainly not certainly not is that AI?" H that's got to be AI there. No one certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve is above the law, but this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of administration threats and ongoing pressures. Yeah, I mean I [clears throat] I get what he's saying, but again, I I think this is all kind of just a back and forth. Is Pal going to go to jail? No, I don't think anything's really going to come of this. It's just lawyers making trillions of dollars just duking it out, going back and forth. But Trump is his objective is already achieved. He sent the message to everybody. And for Pal, you know, I don't think he's really going to he's I don't think he's really going to suffer any legal consequences as a result. And then with I think this was interesting. I'm skipping around here, but I I saw this quote down here that I wanted to bring up where zero hedge I think there's editorial here. Ironically, by escalation, the Fed against Pal, Trump may have made Pal's decision to stick around and mess with the president's plans for ultra dovish Feds problematic. So, I didn't realize that Pal has the decision. That's kind of what they're implying here, right, as to whether or not he wants to stick around. And look at at at at some point Pal's ego has to come into play. Like come on, man. And so he might be like, "Okay, Trump, you want to play hard ball? I'm not leaving. F you." And and let's duke this out. Right. So, we'll have to see how this plays out. There's a lot of moving parts here, a lot of drama, that's for sure. But let's go back to kind of the nuts and bolts of what's going on here. Zero Hedge also says Powell did not discuss the fact that he has delayed action during the surveys sickness sparked the biggest bout of runaway inflation in 40 40 years. Yeah. But again, let's say the Fed would have increased interest rates further. Would we not have had inflation? Of course we would have because the inflation was a result primarily of the politicians destroying global supply chains. And even if they would have increased interest rates, that would not have dropped the supply or that would not have increased the supply of lumber as an example. Remember when lumber just went parabolic? That would not have put more stuff on the grocery store shelves, right? If anything, that would have decreased the amount of stuff, right? So, you know, I don't really think that and what happened when they increased interest rates, the long end pretty much stayed the same or, you know, might have gone up a little but not that much. So, the F even if they would have hiked before this, I don't know that it would have really done anything. But the the main problem here is just this idea that the Fed controls interest rates because that's what they're implying by this statement and we need to completely divorce ourselves from that idea because it's nonsense. Getting back to this uh presided over the biggest insider trading scandal. We can't deny that. I mean that's pal. Look, you you you got to fess up to that one, bud. Which led to multiple resignations at the central bank and was explicitly politically political by cutting rates in September 2024. I don't think he was. And again, did it matter? No. Like like he cut by 50. So is did that somehow create a boom in the economy? Of course it didn't. That's that's craziness. Two months before November election in a bid to sway the vote for Camala. Again, I don't think he did that. Okay. Ironically, the last dramatic escalation, the war between the White House and Mariner Eckles building, is that where the Fed is? Uh, which are located less than a mile apart, takes place even as Pal is doing what Trump has wanted all along, cutting rates. And I think this is a very good point. A very good point. Pal is cutting rates. I mean, he's cut uh what, 150 basis points since September of 2024. So, I I think the argument that even if you want to argue this is about Trump getting interest rates lower, I don't even know if that's valid. I think it goes back to kind of my base case. And this is Trump just flexing and just sending a message to people, whether they're foreign leaders, politicians, people at the Fed, or corporate CEOs, that if you don't do what he says when he says it, he's going to make your life a living hell. He's going to do everything he can to make your life a living hell. I mean, ask Thomas Massie, right? Ask Marjorie Taylor Green. I do the same thing. Let's keep going down here. Now, let's see what happened in markets because silver is up or was up huge today. All disclosure, I own silver. I bought uh when did I buy? I I did a post on Rebel Capitalists Pro, but it was a week ago or something. Let's go to the homepage. We've got um the market itself is ah down a little bit. S&P pretty much flat. NASDAQ up slightly. Gold launching over 4600 an ounce and is exactly what you'd expect gold to do. You know, this shows you that it's not really about debt and deficits or anything like that. It's more so about just counterparty risk, just risk in general. That's really the main driver in my view for gold. And I think that silver is just kind of tagging along and just getting some speculative bid from crypto, but that doesn't mean it ain't going up. Look at this. [laughter] It's up to 85. So, thank I mean that was a good purchase on my end. I'm glad I bought that last week. Copper up as well. But you know what's really interesting because I know what everyone says. This is all about the debasement trade or you know growth in inflation expectations increasing and or debt and deficits and blah blah blah blah blah. But I don't know that you can really argue that well because you look at the metals and it looks like that for sure. But look at energy and then energy you see the exact opposite. So if this really was about the 1970s oil would not be trading at 60 bucks there. There's no way. So a a very wild macro environment just very wild what's happening between the Federal Reserve and the White House. But the main takeaway guys, I think this just shows you that we can say that it's almost inevitable. It might not be imminent, but it's definitely inevitable in my view. That the Fed is going to merge with the government and they're going to merge with the Treasury and it's going to go straight MMT and whoever the president is after Trump, they're going to control interest rates. They're going to control QE. They're going to control QT. They're going to control absolutely everything. This is going to be more central planning. And it's going to open up the door for MMT, a CBDC. It's going to I mean, this is just we've been talking about this since 2019. And every single year, we get closer and closer and closer and closer. We're definitely not getting further away from that. the odds, the probabilities every single year are increasing that we get this kind of the the president, you know, the king, whatever you want to call him, uh just controlling everything, including every single thing the Fed currently does and every single thing the Treasury currently does. And I don't know how long term that doesn't lead to consumer price inflation. Although over the next six months, I'd probably be in the disinflationary camp. We'll have to see when the CPI comes out tomorrow, right? So, a lot of things to talk about, guys. I want to let everyone know, big bombshell here. We just started selling tickets to Rebel Capitalist Live 2026. Woohoo. So, uh, we did some pre-sales over that webinar I did a couple months ago. So, we've already got about 200 people signed up. But if you go over, I think Josh Oh, that's not it. Here we go. Uh Josh is putting the link in the chat and he'll put a link in the description right here. You guys can check it out. It's May 29th through the 31st in Orlando, Florida. You can see what the insiders are saying and you can see who we have lined up for uh this year. Darius Dale is going to be new. Uh most of these other guys you're familiar with here. And uh we've got some that we're going to announce that we haven't announced yet, but you guys can check out this page, get your ticket ASAP because as we get closer to the event, you know, the prices will obviously increase. All right, guys. On that bombshell, enjoy the rest of your afternoon. As always, make sure you're standing for freedom, liberty, free market, capitalism. We'll see you in the next video.