Economist Paul Krugman slammed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for his efforts to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve.
‘Vile, Underhanded and Sleazy’
In his newsletter on Monday, Krugman accused Bessent of leading a “vile, underhanded and sleazy” campaign to escalate the administration’s attacks on the central bank.
Referring to Bessent’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Krugman says, “The vileness is right there in the headline and the first sentence,” with Bessent's comparison of quantitative easing to lab-created pandemics, which Krugman says is about pandering to the “conspiracy theory right.”
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Krugman notes that Bessent, once regarded as the “adult in the room” by Wall Street, is now “clearly trying to rewrite history to smear the Fed.”
He criticized Bessent for suggesting the Fed's post-2008 policies caused harmful inflation, despite data showing that inflation “ran consistently below the Fed's target rate of 2 percent until the post-COVID inflation spike.”
Calling Bessent “highly intelligent and well-versed,” Krugman says that “the fact that he willingly smears the Fed by invoking conspiracy-laden tropes and rewriting facts is a window into his character.” He concludes by saying that he is thankful that Bessent is no longer “in the running for Fed chair.”
Bessent Says ‘Fed Must Change Course’
In his op-ed last week, Bessent called for a “nonpartisan review” of the Fed, saying that its policies have, over the years, “enriched the rich at the expense of the poor,” and that as a result, “the Fed must change course.”
This comes as President Donald Trump told reporters that Bessent was on the shortlist of four candidates to replace Fed chair Jerome Powell, once his term comes to an end in May 2026. Bessent, however, quickly dismissed this, saying that he wasn’t interested.
Photo Courtesy: Maxim Elramsisy On Shutterstock.com
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