Fed fight

Fed fight
In Biden’s laundry list of a State of the Union last week, the president made reference to a small but significant Washington stand off over economic policymaking. “Confirm my nominees for the Federal Reserve,” instructed Biden.

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee have been in a weeks-long impasse over five Biden administration nominees for the Federal Reserve. Republicans are most firmly opposed to one of those candidates, Sarah Bloom Raskin, and have refused to proceed with nominations until she is dropped from the slate of nominees.

Opposition to Raskin (the wife of Congressman Jamie…

Fed fight

In Biden’s laundry list of a State of the Union last week, the president made reference to a small but significant Washington stand off over economic policymaking. “Confirm my nominees for the Federal Reserve,” instructed Biden.

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee have been in a weeks-long impasse over five Biden administration nominees for the Federal Reserve. Republicans are most firmly opposed to one of those candidates, Sarah Bloom Raskin, and have refused to proceed with nominations until she is dropped from the slate of nominees.

Opposition to Raskin (the wife of Congressman Jamie Raskin) centers on her views on financial regulation and climate change. Raskin has written in support of regulation that would choke off capital’s ability to invest in fossil fuels. In the role of Vice Chair for Supervision at the Fed, she would have considerable scope to put those ideas into action, using stress tests and other red tape to accelerate the demise of US oil and gas.

These were contentious ideas when Raskin was first nominated. Pat Toomey, the ranking Republican on the committee has said such proposals amount to “mission creep” for the Fed. They have only grown more controversial with the dramatic transformation of the global energy landscape in recent days. With Biden now claiming to be doing everything he can to boost US energy supplies, the audience for Raskin’s hawkish views on climate change is dwindling. And Raskin increasingly looks like a bad nominee whose time has been and gone.

Overnight, West Virginia senator Joe Manchin may have sealed her fate. “If they’re willing to move four out of five? Take it and run with it. It’s a win,” said Manchin. “I’ll take a win any time I get it.”

Then came the sassy retort of committee chair Sherrod Brown: “Is he on the committee now?”

But with the energy debate transformed and the inflation picture only growing darker — CPI rose to 7.9 percent in February — can Brown really afford to dig in for much longer?

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CNN’s new regime

Spectator writer Stephen L. Miller brings news that CNN’s new president, Chris Licht, wants to move the network away from partisan low-blows and return to the straight-news reporting upon which it built its brand.

The Daily Beast reports that Licht is particularly interested in cooling hostilities with rival network Fox News and “has already begun back-channeling with key figures, including agents and reporters, and, according to two insiders familiar with the matter, making it known to Fox News that he is working towards a cease-fire on his network’s aggressive coverage of them.”

Needless to say, that is a welcome development. Many preening CNN big beasts see their jobs as little more than watching Fox News, getting angry and complaining about the more popular network on their primetime shows. But, as Miller argues, the rot at CNN runs deep. And a genuine pivot to reporting will require fundamental changes — including the departure of several box-office names…

Why is Harris in Poland?

“Kamala to the rescue,” I wrote, not entirely seriously, of the vice president’s trip to Poland yesterday. The Veep has stepped into the middle of a massive diplomatic row. But is she trusted to diffuse the situation? All signs suggest she isn’t. Politico reports that, according to “administration officials” Harris is “not in Poland to make any deals, whether it be on humanitarian aid or the transfer of military equipment. Instead her role is to serve as an emissary and an emblem of the administration’s commitment to the country.” In other words: don’t worry, She isn’t actually doing anything over there.