Free Republic

Gold and silver prices plunged Friday, as President Donald Trump’s nomination for the next chair of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, appeared to relieve concerns about the central bank’s independence and sent the dollar soaring. Spot silver was down 28% at $83.45 an ounce, trading near its lows of the day. Silver futures plummeted 31.4% to settle at $78.53, marking its worst day since March 1980. Meanwhile, spot gold shed around 9% to trade at $4,895.22 an ounce. Gold futures dropped 11.4% to settle at $4,745.10. The sharp moves down were initially triggered by reports of Warsh’s nomination. However, they...

Call it the Post Powell Panic! After The Fed decided to do nothing at the FOMC meeting. Gold is down -12% from the peak, trading below $5,000. Silver is down -21%, trading below $100 for the first time since Friday, officially in a BEAR MARKET. Rough night in the precious metals market space. An absolute BLOODBATH. Is the top behind us? Gold -6% Silver -12% Copper -4% Platinum -13% Palladium -11% Trillions in market cap wiped out in a few hours. Powell at The Fed FOMC meeting imitating former Fed Chair Janet Yellen. And Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh for...

President Donald Trump on Friday named Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, ending a five-month odyssey that has seen unprecedented turmoil around the central bank. The decision culminates a process that officially began last summer but started much earlier than that, with Trump launching a fusillade of criticism against the Powell-led Fed almost since Powell took the job in 2018. “I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” said Trump in a Truth Social post...

Keep on printing money. It seems that home price growth requires The Fed to keep printing money. S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for November (“November” is a 3-month average of September, October and November closing prices). September closing prices include some contracts signed in July, so there is a significant lag to this data. Here is a graph of the month-over-month (MoM) change in the Case-Shiller National Index Seasonally Adjusted (SA). From S&P S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index Reports Annual Gain In November 2025 From S&P S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index Reports Annual Gain In November 2025 The S&P Cotality...

A good Federal Reserve don’t. Print money, that is. The Federal Reserve prints a lot of money (M2). Unfortunately, it largely benefits elites (the top 1%). The bottom 50% get some benefits, but the gains in net worth largely benefits the elite class. This sounds like a legal Somali daycare scheme. Perhaps The Fed should be renamed “The Federal Quality Learing Center.” Yes, Somalis have daycare centers in Columbus Ohio. Thanks Governor Dewine for doing absolutely nothing to reign in their fraud. /sarc

As President Trump has argued his case against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in the public square, high-ranking members of the global banking community have rallied to Powell’s defense. Trump’s argument is that Powell is either incompetent or improperly partisan, as he dithered while a Democratic regime spent the country into oblivion and now he’s refused to accelerate needed reductions in interest rates during a Republican administration. In Trump’s eyes, there has to be a reason for that, and it’s unacceptable behavior. On top of that, Powell’s supervision of the renovation of the Fed’s national headquarters (the Eccles Building) has...

The video is a reaction/commentary piece analyzing a recent CNBC interview clip featuring Joe Kernen interviewing Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Key points covered: Warren criticizes Donald Trump for allegedly trying to exert political control over the Federal Reserve (e.g., threatening to fire Chair Jerome Powell and demanding influence over interest rates). She argues the Fed must remain independent and base decisions purely on economic data like inflation and unemployment, rather than political pressure, to avoid short-term boosts that harm long-term stability. The CNBC host (Kernen) and the video's narrator push back, accusing Warren of hypocrisy. They point out that during...

Lost in the hysterical media bleating about a new criminal investigation into Jerome Powell is any attempt to report fairly on his alleged transgressions. The singular lens through which the investigation is being reported in many openly and not-so-openly left leaning outlets is that it is Donald Trump’s revenge after Powell refused to do as instructed and lower interest rates. But the aperture needs to be widened to see the full picture: the case is about more than the Chair of the Federal Reserve not bending the knee. It is about Powell’s competency as the nation’s chief money man after...

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its third interest rate cut of the year as policymakers moved forward with the cut to support the labor market despite elevated inflation. Fed policymakers voted to lower the benchmark federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a new range of 3.5% to 3.75%. The move follows rate cuts of that size in September and October, which were the first of the year. Policymakers have been tracking economic data showing a slowdown in the labor market in recent months as companies adjust to shifts in trade and immigration policy. Meanwhile, inflation has trended...

New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Friday he expects the central bank can lower its key interest rate from here as labor market weakness poses a bigger economic threat than higher inflation. With divisions in the central bank running high over the future of rates, Williams took the side of the doves who still see policy as a bit restrictive when it comes to economic growth. “I view monetary policy as being modestly restrictive, although somewhat less so than before our recent actions,” he said in remarks for a speech in Santiago, Chile. “Therefore, I still see room...

It's a question that puzzles many: if every nation is in debt, who exactly holds all that money? Who is the lender? This video dives into the structure of the global financial system to answer this fundamental paradox. In this clip, wolff responds to the common confusion surrounding sovereign debt. We explore who actually buys government bonds and how national debts are created and financed. This wolff responds analysis demystifies the difference between internal and external debt. The discussion clarifies the roles of central banks, private financial institutions, and even other countries in holding this debt. This wolff responds segment...

The Week Jobs Were Better Than Expected and the Fed Was Worse Than We ThoughtWelcome to Friday! This is the Breitbart Business Digest weekly wrap, where we catch up on the economic and finance news of the seven days already lost to history.This week was one in which mysteries were uncovered. The government got around to unveiling the truth about jobs in September and the mysterious resignation of yet another Fed official. Hiring by restaurants appeared to put to rest fears of a restaurant recession. Anchors aweigh!Better Late Than Never: America’s Unexpected September Jobs SurpriseThe Department of Labor released its...

Joe Lavorgna, counselor to Treasury Secretary Bessent, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss the state of the government shutdown, what a reopened government will do to the economy and much more.

Federal Reserve officials voted for another quarter-point rate cut on Wednesday, lowering their benchmark lending rate to a range between 3.75% and 4%, the lowest in three years. The decision drew two dissents; one from Fed Governor Stephen Miran, who backed a larger, half-point cut; and another from Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid, who preferred to hold borrowing costs steady. It is the first time since 2019 that there were dueling dissents — both calling for easier and tighter policy — underscoring the heated debate among officials over how President Donald Trump’s sweeping policies on trade, immigration and spending...

Every living former chair of the Federal Reserve, as well as a slew of ex-Treasury secretaries and former White House economic advisors, urged the Supreme Court not to allow President Donald Trump to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook as her lawsuit challenging her removal is pending. Signers included ex-Fed chairs Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen; ex-Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Hank Paulson, Jack Lew, and Timothy Geithner; and ex-CEA chairs Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw, Christina Romer, Cecilia Rouse, Jared Bernstein, and Jason Furman.

President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, setting up a test of the president’s ability to take control of the powerful interest-rate setting body. The Justice Department on Thursday asked the high court to reverse the decisions of two lower courts that allowed Cook to remain in her position while the broader legal fight is underway. Their decisions enabled Cook to participate in a meeting this week that resulted in a quarter-point reduction in the interest rate. Trump’s incursion on the Federal Reserve is the culmination of his...

The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to lift lower court rulings that have blocked President Donald Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The request, which was expected, came after Cook participated this week in a meeting of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee, which decided to cut its benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point. “This application involves yet another case of improper judicial interference with the President’s removal authority — here, interference with the President’s authority to remove members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for cause,” Solicitor General D. John...

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved a widely anticipated rate cut and signaled that two more are on the way before the end of the year as concerns intensified over the U.S. labor market even as inflation is still in the air. In an 11-to-1 vote signaling less dissent than Wall Street had anticipated, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point. The decision puts the overnight funds rate in a range between 4.00%-4.25%. Newly installed Governor Stephen Miran was the only policymaker voting against the quarter-point move, instead advocating...

The Federal Reserve announced a quarter-point interest rate cut, the first of 2025.The decision follows slowing job growth and rising inflation, challenging the Fed's dual mandate.Criticism from investors and political pressure influenced the Fed's decision to cut rates.

A federal appeals court has blocked President Trump from firing a member of the Federal Reserve's governing board, just ahead of a key vote on interest rates. On a two-to-one vote, the divided court upheld an earlier decision from a district judge who found that firing Lisa Cook would likely violate the Federal Reserve Act, which includes provisions designed to insulate the central bank from political pressure from the White House. The decision comes just days before the Fed's rate-setting committee is expected to vote to lower its benchmark interest rate for the first time this year. Trump has been...