Topics in the News: Federal Reserve
Donald Trump on Budget & Economy
: Oct 16, 2024
Federal Reserve chair flips a coin on interest rates
Q: The Federal Reserve. You say you don't want interest rates to go higher?TRUMP: It depends on the jobs. Look, I think it's the greatest job in government. You show up to the office once a month and you say, "let's see, flip a coin." And everybody
talks about you like you're a god. "Oh, what will he do?" I mean, before, the guy used to walk into my office. He was like begging.
Q: You talked about removing him once.
TRUMP: I did because he was keeping the rates too high. And I was right.
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Source: Chicago Economic Club transcript: 2024 Presidential hopefuls
JD Vance on Families & Children
: Jul 30, 2024
2021: Go to war against the anti-child ideology
In an interview with The Federalist in May 2021, Vance was asked what he thinks conservatives can do to encourage Americans to have more kids. He suggested cultural messaging is key. "I think we have to go to war against the anti-child ideology that
exists in our country," said Vance.Though he generally didn't specify the gender of the childless people he was criticizing, the context of his remarks made it seem he was primarily speaking to women. Citing a conversation that had recently unfolded
on Twitter, Vance described a "ridiculous effort by millennial feminist writers" to talk about why there are good reasons not to have children and how some of them were glad they didn't have kids and even to encourage "people who had had children to talk
about why they regretted having children."
Vance went on to say that people who have had children "have actually built something more meaningful with their lives," and that is why "we have to go to war against that ideology and the people behind it."
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Source: Huffington Post on 2024 Veepstakes
Vivek Ramaswamy on Corporations
: Sep 27, 2023
Cut the Fed technocracy, to unshackle the economy
We have to put the Federal Reserve back in its place. This is an agency that has gone rogue. So in January 2026 when I have the opportunity, we will have a new chairman of the Federal Reserve who placed his priority on dollar
stability and then, most importantly, send packing 75% of the administrative state, reduce the federal employee headcount by 75%, rescind 50% of unconstitutional federal regulations that are shackling businesses, both large and small.
I've offered a very clear practical plan to do it. That's how we unleash the economy, that's how we revive the integrity of a three-branch
Constitutional Republic rather than this technocracy and aristocracy.
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Source: Fox Business 2023 Republican primary debate in Simi Valley
Mike Pence on Budget & Economy
: Jun 7, 2023
Freeze nondefense discretionary spending across the board
We need to get federal spending under control. I think we ought to impose a freeze on all nondefense discretionary spending across the board. And we ought to turn off all that unnecessary COVID spending in its entirety.
Secondly, I think we got to get the Federal Reserve back to doing its job, which is protecting the currency. Let them protect the dollar, and let's hold our political leaders to account for keeping Americans working.
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Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Joe Biden on Gun Control
: Nov 4, 2021
Close loopholes in Federal gun background check system
Gun violence is a public health crisis. Every day, gun violence--community violence, domestic violence, suicides, and mass shootings--takes American lives and forever alters many more. Last year, we saw record levels of homicides in cities throughout
our country. The Federal gun background check system is a proven tool to reduce gun violence and save lives. This system, called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, has kept millions of guns out of potentially dangerous hands.
The Administration encourages closing existing loopholes in this system in two bills, H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, and H.R. 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021. The Administration looks forward to working with the
Congress to strengthen the Federal gun background check system and take other commonsense steps to reduce gun violence. [See details of H.R.8 / S.529]
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Source: Presidential 2024 hopefuls: White House press release
Donald Trump on Government Reform
: Sep 30, 2019
FactCheck: Whistleblower rules never require 1st-hand report
Pres. Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory suggesting the rules for whistleblowing had recently changed in order to accommodate the recent whistleblower complaint against him; specifically, so that someone with secondhand knowledge could now submit these
complaints. "WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT? DRAIN THE SWAMP!" Trump tweeted.The theory was initially propagated by The Federalist website on Sep. 27. The article claims that
in "Aug. 2019, the intelligence community secretly eliminated a requirement that whistleblowers provide direct, first-hand knowledge of alleged wrongdoings."
Facts First: This is false. The whistleblower submission form was revised in Aug. 2019, but
the revision did not change the rules on who can submit a whistleblower complaint. The inspector general of the intelligence community said that having firsthand knowledge of the event has never been required in order to submit a whistleblower complaint.
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Source: Cato Institute FactCheck on impeaching Trump
Bernie Sanders on Free Trade
: Aug 25, 2019
Trump's actions on trade destabilizing world economy
What the president is doing is totally irrational, and it is destabilizing the entire world economy. You do not make trade policy by announcing today that you're going to raise tariffs by X-%, and the next day by Y-%, by attacking the person you
appointed as head of the Federal Reserve as an enemy of the American people, by denouncing the president of China, who last year you really loved as a great leader. This kind of instability causing very serious harm to the entire world economy.
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Source: CNN State of the Union interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Donald Trump on Budget & Economy
: Jun 23, 2019
Economy was ready to collapse in 2016; now it's the best
Obama had somebody that kept the [Federal Reserve interest] rates very low. I had somebody that raised the rates very rapidly. Too much. He made a mistake. That's been proven.
And yet my economy is phenomenal. We have now the best economy, maybe in the history of our country. When I took over, this country, the economy was ready to collapse.
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Source: Meet the Press 2019 interview series
Howie Hawkins on Budget & Economy
: May 19, 2019
Socialize big banks; manage the national currency
The national currency is a vital common resource that should be managed in the public interest. We must nationalize the Federal Reserve System as a Monetary Authority in the Treasury Department. The Monetary Authority will create all national currency
(cash and electronic) free of any associated debt. New money will be credited to the account of the federal government as additional revenue to be spent into circulation in the economy in accordance with the federal budget.
Banks will be prohibited from creating new money as loans. Banks will borrow or raise money for lending from savers and investors, including the Monetary Authority. People and businesses will borrow from funds in the banks' accounts.
Socialize the big banks: The allocation of investments according to an economic plan requires a significant sector of public banks.
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Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
Donald Trump on Budget & Economy
: May 6, 2016
The Fed should refinance debt to reduce interest payments
Trump boasted how "I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal." When pressed, though, he said a country is different and he didn't mean to renegotiate the U.S. debt, only to "refinance" existing debt. Of course,
refinancing debt saves money only when rates go down, which raises the question of what the Fed should do with rates.Trump wants rates to remain low to prevent the dollar from appreciating, which would bring "major problems."
But another consideration, he noted, was the [interest payments on the] national debt: "What do we do with all of the money that we owe everybody when rates go up and now all of a sudden we have to borrow at two points more? One point more, even, is
devastating. It has to be handled very, very carefully." For the Fed to base interest-rate decisions on the national debt would blur the lines between monetary and fiscal policy. It's heresy by today's standards, but [was done in the 1960s].
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Source: Wall Street Journal, "Lean on the Fed?", by Greg Ip
Chris Christie on Budget & Economy
: Nov 10, 2015
The Fed should stop maintaining low interest rates
This has been the most political Federal Reserve I've seen in my lifetime. When they cut interest rates during the recession, that was the right thing to do. But they've kept those interest rates artificially low because they're trying to
politically support Barack Obama. The middle class is doing worse than it's ever done before. The wealthy are doing better because of this cheap money from the Fed. If we slide back towards a recession, you cannot lower interest rates below zero.
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Source: Fox Business/WSJ Second Tier debate
Donald Trump on Technology
: Aug 27, 2015
FactCheck: 24% of our bridges are in trouble, not 59%
Trump claimed "59% of our bridges are in trouble." That's way off. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) says 24% of the nation's bridges were "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete" in 2014.On Aug. 25, Trump said, "Our bridges,
59% of our bridges are in trouble. Think--whoever heard of that? I mean, in trouble. Serious trouble." Whoever heard of that? Not the FHWA. The agency annually produces a report on the state of the nation's bridges. The FHWA's most recent report found
61,365 bridges were "structurally deficient" and 84,525 were "functionally obsolete" in 2014. That's a total of 24%
Functionally obsolete doesn't mean the bridge is unsafe: it may be the source of traffic jams or may not have a high enough clearance to
allow an oversized vehicle.
We don't mean to minimize the number of bridges in need of attention, but the number is simply not as high as Trump says. Where did he get the figure 59%? We don't know. His campaign did not respond to our questions.
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Source: FactCheck.org on 2016 presidential hopefuls
Jill Stein on Corporations
: Jun 25, 2015
Break up "too-big-to-fail" banks
A Just Economy: Set a $15/hour federal minimum wage. Break up "too-big-to-fail" banks and democratize the Federal Reserve. Reject gentrification as a model of economic development. Support development of worker and community cooperatives and
small businesses. Make Wall Street, big corporations, and the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Create democratically run public banks and utilities. Replace corporate trade agreements with fair trade agreements.
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Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, jill2016.com, "Plan"
Bernie Sanders on Budget & Economy
: Apr 30, 2015
Break up large banks; add fees for high-risk investments
Sanders would divide large banks into smaller entities and charge a new fee for high-risk investment practices, including credit default swaps. In addition, he believes the Federal Reserve is an opaque organization which gives too much support to large
corporations. His pushed for a 2011 audit of the Fed and he would use the Fed to force banks into loaning more money to small businesses. Finally, he would ban financial industry executives from serving on the 12 regional boards of directors.
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Source: PBS News Hour "2016 Candidate Stands" series
Jill Stein on Education
: Oct 16, 2012
Bail out the students instead of bailing out the banks
OBAMA: We've got to make sure that we have the best education system in the world. We've worked hard so that student loans are available, but I also want to make sure that community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained.STEIN:
To ensure that our students have a strong, secure economic future, how about we bail out the students instead of bailing out the banks for the fourth time? The Federal Reserve just announced its latest quantitative easing, where it will be spending
$40 billion a month to bail out the banks for what's effectively the fourth bailout, yet we've really gone nowhere with these bailouts. It's time to bail out the students instead, so that way students can enter into their professional life, their
careers, without the deep burden of debt that they currently now have. While we're at it, let's make public higher education free. We owe it to our young people to give them a good, strong start in life. And we know this pays for itself from the GI Bill.
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Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Second Obama-Romney 2012 debate
Joe Biden on Budget & Economy
: Sep 20, 2011
As banks become profitable, start fundamental reforms
Obama began to double back, wondering what his team thought of [Federal Reserve chair] Volcker's idea. Biden, who was an old friend of Volcker's, stepped in during a White House meeting and said that the banks were strong enough to take
some medicine now, even if it wasn't fundamental change. They were making money again, gambling with depositors' funds and with implicit, or explicit, support of the taxpayer. It wasn't right. Obama nodded. Joe had said it, straight and true.
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Source: Confidence Men, by Ron Suskind, p.349-350
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Sep 29, 2010
Introduced Federal Reserve Transparency Act with Ron Paul
When Fed Chair Ben Bernanke refuses to give us information about the trillions of dollars of credit that he recently passed out in the bailout process because that would be "counterproductive," he is really saying, "It's none of your business."
He may well be protected by the law, but he is in defiance of the Constitution. The courts, under today's circumstances, will never rule that the Federal Reserve Bank chairman must reveal the information that the Congress or the people seek.
One thing
I have noticed in studying the issue is that the more power the Fed has gained, the greater the secrecy they demand. Transparency is currently a hot issue in Congress because the people have awoken and have sent a message. This is not a conservative or
liberal issue; it's not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is pervasive, across the political spectrum.
I introduced a Federal Reserve audit bill the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207, which Bernie Sanders introduced in the Senate.
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Source: End the Fed, by Rep. Ron Paul, p.174-175
Joe Biden on Budget & Economy
: Aug 19, 2007
More transparency for hedge funds and private equity funds
Q: The Fed lowered the discount rate for banks to address the mortgage crisis. Should they lower rates for everyone else? A: The answer is yes. But we need more transparency, particularly with regard to hedge funds and private equity funds.
They are the ones that are causing this thing to go under. And there's no transparency, no accountability. We don't know how deep this problem is. I think it's almost as deep in terms of dollars, not liability, as the savings and loan crisis.
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Source: 2007 Democratic primary debate on "This Week"
Page last updated: Nov 02, 2024
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