The NYT headline for the top story this morning.
In a letter posted to social media, Mr. Trump said the allegations of mortgage fraud undermined Ms. Cook.... The president claimed she could not perform as an effective financial regulator, as he invoked a power in the Fed’s founding statute that allows him to fire governors for cause....
The allegation against Cook is that she obtained a lower interest rate by claiming — in documents signed 2 weeks apart — that both a condominium in Atlanta and a house in Ann Arbor, Michigan were her primary residence. The NYT states that the allegations against Cook are part of "an emerging pattern of political retribution." The other bits of that "pattern" are allegations against Adam Schiff and Letitia James.
Perhaps the alleged wrongdoing is too personal and insufficiently related to her professional duties to constitute cause under the statute. Trump's letter asserts that he does not have "confidence in [her] integrity." He notes his obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed and asserts that duty requires him to fire her immediately. She is challenging that exercise of power, as if the firing cannot be immediate and a court must double-check the President's finding.
The NYT article is full of material about the importance of the independence of the Federal Reserve.
संदेश
167 टिप्पणियां:
Trump doing the right thing. Dem's trying to stop him from doing the right thing. Ugh.
Some of his actions are of questionable legality. So were his predecessor's. That's what lawyers get the big bucks to argue about.
"The NYT states that the allegations against Cook are part of "an emerging pattern of political retribution." The other bits of that "pattern" are allegations against Adam Schiff and Letitia James."
The actual "pattern" is the behavior of entitled legislators, jurists, and bureaucrats. DJT would be remiss in failing to prosecute fraud, as it appears and should be adjudicated in court.
Bye Felicia!
In 2013 Obama turned the Federal Reserve into an explicit political (election support) entity per requiring that nominees follow the "dual mandate" of controlling inflation and maximizing employment.
Democrats were hoisted on their own petard, as myopic politicians always are. Cast your bread upon the waters and in many days it shall return.
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mo-obama-federal-reserve-chair-janet-yellen-lawrence-summers-20130729-story.html
Nobody is above the Law. Including those who set monetary policy.
I heard a defense of Lisa Cook's action that stated the problem was how complex and confusing the mortgage process is. That's when I lost confidence. If a Fed Governor can't figure out the mortgage process, they are not qualified for the position they hold.
Any chance hope revisit Marbury
Bitch Bilked Bad.
"..."an emerging pattern of political retribution."..." Emerging from where? The very first time that Trump did anything, the Progressive Leftist media were blaring it out and filing lawsuits, and have repeated the attacks ever since for virtually every single action. So.... when will it be done 'emerging'? The 'pattern' of panic attacks and hysterical reactions have been out in the open since Day 1.
At least they couldn't say 'without evidence'. They're left with resorting to nuance, a loser's hand.
There are one set of laws. If they do not apply to everyone, then they are just an excuse for tyranny.
It's not lawfare when somebody actually breaks the law. Lawfare is when a judge disallows expert testimony because it undermines the prosector's case, which is what happened in the Trump, Mar a Lago show trial.
"how complex and confusing the mortgage process is."
Yeah, when applying for mortgages, I always forget which is my primary residence too. It's so darn complicated!
Most Americans find it extremely difficult to buy even one home, and here she is buying 2 homes within a 2 week period and apparently cheating to get a better rate. On top of that she needs to argue now that she's entitled to hold onto her job... and did she truly earn that job?
The elite need to notice the sound of that political music. I hear law professors crying about unfairness to Cook and power madness in Trump.
This has nothing to do with retribution, and everything to do with taking control of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy, with an eye towards easier money.
This is both a political and economic mistake--assuming he succeeds. When the economy falters, the stock market declines, or inflation flares, which all inevitably will, Trump will now own it. He is removing his best whipping boy.
I just keep wondering how many Swamp "elitists" have done the same thing on multiple properties? I bet we'd all be shocked by the answer.
Jaq, you have to understand, when you are buying two homes at roughly the same time, it gets complicated. Most Americans will fortunately never have to face this dilemma.
What's with Democrats and mortgage fraud? There is a formal paper trail, the crime is easy to understand and there is a victim.
Sounds like Trump was telling Cook that we can do this the hard way or the easy way. Cook didn't resign, so it's the hard way. She will be charged, and it seems like this should not be difficult to prove.
Let's ask the Democrats if they would have approved her appointment if they knew about the mortgage fraud.
Dang Althouse beat me to it.
The primary reason to claim two primary residences is tax evasion. Jurisdictions often have different, lower tax rates for a primary residence. If she was filing for the lower rate in two jurisdictions it was tax fraud. I suppose lenders could offer a lower interest rate for primary vs not on the same home so lying on an application is bad but the big no no here is tax evasion…
"I heard a defense of Lisa Cook's action that stated the problem was how complex and confusing the mortgage process is."
It appears the question is whether or not she claimed, within a period of two weeks, that two different properties in two different states were her "primary residence".
Do *you* know where *you* live? Doesn't seem all that complex and confusing to me.
…they did it because they believed to be above the law and their position meant they wouldn’t get caught..
I voted for this:
This has nothing to do with retribution, and everything to do with taking control of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy, with an eye towards easier money.
My favorite part is the senior Fed officer who dismissed her "mistake" saying that mortgage documents are "difficult to understand"...
Yeah but literally tens of millions of us manage to do it without claiming TWO PRIMARY RESIDENCES. You see, Fed, words like "primary" have a specific and exclusionary definition: they are unique, as in one of a kind. One can only have ONE "primary residence" according to law AND EVERYBODY KNOWS IT.
What this bullshit act of journalism is doing is throwing chaff in the air hoping you won't notice that it is exceptionally EASY to scratch a democrat document stack and find mortgage fraud. Leticia claiming her Dad as a "spouse" on her documents. Mosby already in jail. Schiff heading there soon.
Just stop cheating and breaking laws.
an emerging pattern of political retribution
…it just looks that way. It’s really because you and all your political friends are real live actual criminals…
@ Money Manger
So the smart move would be for Trump to keep her around to use as a scape goat? So he could point to her and say, Don't blame me. She did it, She made the economy falter and the stock market fall? Seriously?
Leticia James is the absolute GENIUS democrat operative that decided to create a "mortgage fraud" out of thin air and sketchy paperwork and multiply it to 34 "counts" in her pyrrhic victory over Trump.
Did you democrats really think he would take that misuse of the law and shake it off? Did you think he would NOT subject YOUR mortgage paperwork to a close examination?
What should Trump claim as his primary residence? Mar-a-lago? Or inside liberals’ heads?
From the Wikipedia page regarding Lisa Cook: "At present, it is unclear whether any legally sufficient grounds exist to justify Cook’s dismissal, as the Federal Reserve Act requires that such removal be for cause."
I've always been bemused and amused by that phrase, for cause. It usually means for misconduct. I think that applies in this case. If a nominee for Fed board rejects the proposition that even the plausible appearance of criminal misconduct is sufficient cause for dismissal, then he should not have been accepted the nomination in the first place.
I suppose the members of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection failed to ask Cook the pertinent question, probably out of fear of RACIST!
Once, any federal official found cheating like Lisa Cook did would have been shamed into resigning immediately. By the same token, a President found taking bribes only a fraction of the amount of the Biden arrangements would have had to resign or face certain, bipartisan impeachment.
"Ms. Cook and her lawyer said they would fight the firing."
I certainly hope so. The explanation for why she should be allowed to avoid the kind of taxes that little people are required to pay (if they can even afford to buy a house) should be illuminating.
"The NYT article is full of material about the importance of the independence of the Federal Reserve."
Anything in there about the importance of public officials following the laws regular people are expected to?
"... here she is buying 2 homes within a 2 week period and apparently cheating to get a better rate. On top of that she needs to argue now that she's entitled to hold onto her job..."
And it's a job about controlling the interest rates that limit ordinary Americans from buying their first home.
It's really tone-deaf to stress the unfairness to Cook. Trump's message is politically loud, whatever happens in court (and he probably will win, perhaps a lot, in court).
She's trespassing every day she shows up to work from now on. Arrest her.
Also it seems beyond chance that the most vociferous Trump haters in the democrat party also tend to play loose with rules and regulations that they viciously enforce on their enemies. Maybe the whole party is a criminal enterprise. It sure seems so.
Evergreen: Trump is supremely blessed in having exceedingly stupid and crooked opposition.
This reminds me of the series of problems during the Clinton administration and all the appointees (and others?) having the question of paying social security and other taxes/withholding for ‘house help’ (Nannies and such). First, one was raised but when the rock was lifted the lawlessness was identified all over.
But Althouse, did she have the requisite intent to defraud? We should check in with James Comey to find out. Otherwise, we can never know, can we?
This is why we can't have laws that swing on someone's interpretation of someone else's intent.
Shorter NYT: Laws are for little people.
I have a little bit of sympathy for her and people like her because we have never created a system of laws for federal civilian employees the way we have for regular military. In the military, you can pick one state to be your home of record, even if your transfers and deployments mean you don’t live there for years and years. No such thing in the federal civilian system. Partly because so many fedciv’s just get a federal job in their hometowns and stay there, so the amount of fedciv’s doing multiple transfers like the military is small. But it’s nontrivial, especially if it exposes them to criminal liability for doing their jobs. Think also of members of congress, nearly all of whom run two households.
As an anecdote, one of my many blowups with USAA happened on one of my fedciv transfers. I bought my new house before I sold the old one. Both were mortgaged and ensured with USAA. A few weeks after the closing on the new house, I get a call from USAA asking me why I have two mortgages. I patiently explained that I was on a federal move and was actively trying to sell the old one ASAP so I wouldn’t be paying two mortgages. Managed to run them off, but I was so disappointed in them. When USAA started, it was a small coop so military officers could have reasonable insurance. Later it set up one of the first 24/7 remote banks (before widespread internet), because military people are 24/7. That USAA would have immediately understood what I was doing and never made the phone call. But then it got greedy and expanded its membership eligibility. And all the other banks became 24/7. So USAA lost everything that made it unique.
Heavy sigh.
Anyway, that’s why I don’t automatically pounce on politicians doing apparently weird stuff with their homes. They are square pegs in a word of round holes.
RR
JSM
This has nothing to do with retribution, and everything to do with taking control of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy, with an eye towards easier money.
Another way to put it is that Trump had a political enemy on the board who was invested in making his life difficult and making the period of the mid-terms as economically hard on the American people as she could in order to get her favored political party back in power. So why not both with a clean conscience?
"The primary reason to claim two primary residences is tax evasion."
Yep. But I supposed that it makes getting a lower rate on a mortgage easier, as well. And cheaper insurance, etc.
The support for this woman reminds me of the millions of people who signed a petition for leniency on the truck driver who was an illegal migrant, got his license in California, then killed a family in Florida by making an illegal u-turn on the Florida Turnpike. In that case it all boiled down to tribalism, the family killed was not of the same "tribe" as the truck driver. Fortunately Florida's governor is not going for it. But how tone deaf do you have to be to view the truck driver as some kind of victim?
jm: In the military, did you buy both homes within two weeks?
"Fed independence" is mutually convenient to the Administration and to the Fed itself. Each can point the finger at the other for hiccups (or worse) in the economy, meaning neither has responsibility. Anyway, the Fed can justify anything
since it can point to its contradictory (imposed by Congress)
jobs -- repress inflation AND go for full employment.
"In the military, you can pick one state to be your home of record, even if your transfers and deployments mean you don’t live there for years and years. No such thing in the federal civilian system."
Oh good grief. "Primary". Pick one. It's not rocket science.
Not very complicated at all. And not political retribution. My evidence? The significant drop in registrations for the Democrat Party. Lots of people catching on that all those virtue signalers are really just liars and crooks themselves.
"It's a job about controlling the interest rates that limit ordinary Americans from buying their first home."
That's not all. Virtually every other type of interest rate is set based off the Fed Funds rate. This would include:
Credit card rates
Consumer loan rates
Auto loans
Personal loans and lines of credit
Savings and deposit rates
US Treasury bond payouts
Corporate and municipal interest rates
The Federal Reserve is deciding how much money you can have. It's that simple. If they want to take money from you, they raise one rate and that raises every other cost you have to live in the United States. Virtually every other cost you incur is dependent on the Fed Funds rate going up or down - all the way down to the cost of a loaf of bread.
It's more power than has ever been concentrated in a banking cartel controlled a relatively small number of Jews.
I agree that this firing sets a horrible precedence. It is super important that we allow the banksters to control our money supply without being elected without being subject to control by elected officials. The independence and absolute power of this Star Chamber shall not be diminished otherwise they will purposefully tank the economy in revenge. Therefore,we must kiss their golden rings and ask for forgiveness
@Mike (MJB Wolf): "Also it seems beyond chance that the most vociferous Trump haters in the democrat party also tend to play loose with rules and regulations that they viciously enforce on their enemies. Maybe the whole party is a criminal enterprise."
It's NOT chance. The athletic competitors most interested in enforcing rules are those most likely to be cheating themselves -- they believe that cheating gives them an edge and they cannot be detected or caught. But, they want others to be caught to limit the competition.
TDS merely ripped the smiling masks off of many sociopathic career politicians. This included the "conservative" spreader of the Pee Dossier, Republican John McCain.
Ann, this isn’t really about Lisa Cook’s mortgages—it’s about whether the Fed is independent or just another political arm of the White House. If presidents can knock out governors by decree, markets will assume interest rates are set by politics, not economics. That’s not abstract: when Turkey went that route and Erdogan forced out central bankers he didn’t like, inflation exploded and ordinary people couldn’t afford food, rent, or fuel. Whatever anyone thinks of Cook, the precedent here is far more dangerous to first-time homebuyers than her refinancing choices ever were.
"...Trump's message is politically loud, whatever happens in court (and he probably will win, perhaps a lot, in court). .."
Having had the machinery of government aligned in its opposition and allied to destroy him, Trump well understands the leverage commanded by the long arm of government. He is uniquely positioned to exert this executive leverage, he has now has found a point of purchase to apply it. I wonder if the Fed will fold, and will have its authority redefined , and its independence established, but with a ring fence and new limits.
If Fed job came up after first home purchase and required moving??
hauman_prodigious_leaper is definitely not a "comment bot" designed by Google to falsely inflate "engagement" as a way to defraud advertisers.
The federal reserve is obviously political. It lowered rates in September to help Joe Biden in an environment where inflation was massively higher and there was no good reason to lower rates compared to present. For six months, the economy Was in a better position to lower rates than it was in September and the only reason Jone Powell and the board with political animals like Cook Did not lower the rates because it would help Trump.
Most of the people on the board of the federal reserve are idiots as Cook is demonstrating. It is all a DEI clown show now.
It is long past time that the federal reserve was replaced with an open source algorithm that controlled interest rates. There’s no reason for a political body like this to help the Democrats and Republicans whenever they’re in charge.
The NYT states that the allegations against Cook are part of "an emerging pattern of political retribution." The other bits of that "pattern" are allegations against Adam Schiff and Letitia James."
The Federal Reserve didn't raid Trump's house, arrest him, take his mug shot, or prosecute him for crimes that didn't exist. What did Lisa Cook do to Donald Trump, allegedly, NYT, that has caused him to seek retribution?
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
If she's as bad as Adam Schiff or Letitia James, then she ought to be fired. It's a dumb move to talk about her like she's some blue warrior who's a co-collaborator on the anti-Trump train. Is she a co-conspirator who sought to harm Trump during the Biden years?
It's not political retribution. It's a ballsy move to remove somebody in the government who is getting in your way.
I do think the ring of fire that Trump went through has inspired him to be pro-active about getting things done. It's moved the Overton window into what kind of partisan shit is now perfectly reasonable and ordinary.
Horse feathers, Ronald. Don't throw stones at the President if your primary residence is a glass house.
Whatever would happen to me should happen to Cook.
Jaq: my move was during my fee civilian career. And the houses were bought 6 years apart. I get what you’re saying, but there still could be a good reason to buy two houses at once as primary residences: see my example of Congresscritters. And each state has a slightly different residency law for taxes. And probably each bank has its own rules for what constitutes a primary residence. And if Prof Cook was really planning to live off her public salaries, an interest point here and there could be real money to her.
Nevertheless, someone taking a public trust job that sets interest rates should err on the side of losing money rather than losing integrity. And when I looked into Cook’s specifics, one house was in Michigan, which makes sense as that is where her academic job is. But the other was in Georgia, which is nowhere near her positions at MSU, FRB-CHI, or the main FRB in DC. So something doesn’t smell right.
I still don’t like reflexive pile-ons, because probably all public servants, of all parties and none, have done something like this.
RR
JSM
"If presidents can knock out governors by decree, markets will assume interest rates are set by politics, not economics."
Rates are already being set by unelected Democrat Party bankers to fuck over Republican Presidents. The politics is already baked into the market and every market participant knows this. Jerome Powell is a Democrat and he has a vested political interest in fucking over Donald Trump and he doesn't care how much that costs YOU for him to get political revenge.
If the President of the United States cannot fire someone he is by law appointing, for cause, then that person represents someone who is ABOVE THE LAW.
And we're not going to have that or else we're going to take the government out.
Ronald, this isn’t really about the Federal Reserve's independence—it's about whether the Board of Governors should be allowed to manipulate interest rates in order to influence the mid-term elections.
We aren't interested in rote repetitions of today's DNC talking points memo, that Rachel Maddow's rice bowl.
At the risk of being pedantic too many people use "The Fed" without specifying what they mean.
In this case it is the Federal Reserve Board, a federal agency that overseas the 12 privately owned Federal Reserve Banks
It is roughly analogous to confusing the Securities and Exchange commission (federal agency) and the various national stock exchanges (private organizations) such as NYSE, NASDAQ American Stock Exchange(defunct) Chicago Board of Trade and others.
John Henry
Colby Cosh reposted
Byrne Hobart
@ByrneHobart
·
11h
I know central bank independence is incredibly important, but whenever I've read a Fed chair's autobiography there's a lot of "the President told me that a rate cut would be a great idea in the fall of an even-numbered year"-type stuff, some more subtle than others.
Quaestor said...
From the Wikipedia page...
8/26/25, 8:38 AM
Sorry but that was your first mistake. The little fascists that edit Wikipedia will allow NOTHING that runs counter to the lefty narratives...
What should Trump claim as his primary residence? Mar-a-lago? Or inside liberals’ heads?
Quite a quandary
Little precedent...
Probably because most fed governors were either playing it straight or were much more sophisticated crooks.
@John Henry: It is more akin to conflating the SEC with FINRA. And a lot of people do that also.
Jeff Childers in his Coffee and Covid substack points out that contesting the firing puts Brooks in a difficult spot. She has 2 choices: 1) She can claim that she didn't do it or didn't break any law. Since the documents exist, this will be tough to argue. 2) She can admit her guilt but argue that this does not rise to the "cause" required. That would open a can of worms arguing about the president's authority to fire Federal Reserve Board employees. It might even wind up defining cause as "The president doesn't like you."
It might also look at how and why she got the job. She seems to have no qualifications other than sex and race. Seems to be DEI hire.
John Henry
By the way, whoever asked upthread, the person who truly outed her as a "DEI hire" is her superior at the Fed who excused her stupidity by claiming the documents they make us use are "too hard" for her. If doing paperwork is too hard for her she sure as hell shouldn't be a GOVERNOR over others who manage to do paperwork without committing fraud.
The Fed released a study within the last few years on the harm done by people getting a mortgage by lying about whether the home was for personal use. The study showed that such mortgages have a higher rate of default. This type of chicanery has a systemic effect on mortgage rates. Obviously, banks have to charge higher interest rates to account for this effect. Just as stores have to raise prices to account for shoplifting.
Amen, Howard! 8:50 Agree completely.
Cook teaches in Michigan and has a home there. If she had been appointed to the Atlanta fed board and needed a place there, I might be more sympathetic, but she was appointed to the Chicago Fed Board and could make the trip back and forth without too much trouble. If she'd declared both a home in Michigan and a condo in Chicago as primary residences that would also raise flags, but why did she declare the condo in Atlanta a primary residence? What did she use it for? Spelman reunions? A retirement place? A vacation getaway? An investment?
Ronald J. Ward said...
Ann, this isn’t really about Lisa Cook’s mortgages—it’s about whether the Fed is independent or just another political arm of the White House
“Independent” means blatantly serving democrats and being run by democrats.
When republicans win elections then everything becomes “independent” that is what RJW really means.
“ If a Fed Governor can't figure out the mortgage process, they are not qualified for the position they hold.”
Yes.
"Ann, this isn’t really about...."
What's the test of what something is "really about."
D.D. Driver said...
Whatever would happen to me should happen to Cook.
This.
When does Trump send the National Guard to the Federal Reserve building?
We are to the point where Democrats consider criminals an oppressed minority needing protection from law abiding majority. You idiots that do really need to stop voting for this shit. You are crapping in your own kitchen. We get it, Trump makes you do stupid things, but don't you want to stop doing stupid things? Wait, don't even answer that. We know.
@Saint Croix: "I do think the ring of fire that Trump went through has inspired him to be pro-active about getting things done. It's moved the Overton window into what kind of partisan shit is now perfectly reasonable and ordinary."
Indeed. Trump shifted Republican politics from polite and unmoving post-Watergate "We follow the rules but we noticed that you did wrong" to aggressively playing tit-for-tat and duplicating Democrat's methods. For the first time in my lifetime, we have truly bipartisan trench warfare/trench lawfare.
This is not necessarily a good thing, but it was going to happen. Republicans tried to bring back Queensbury Rules following the Robert Bork and Clarance Thomas cases. That effort failed, they went through the weird Clinton-Lewinsky impeachment, there were many structured anti-Trump 45 efforts, and then party differences ended with Trump 47.
Ann, this isn’t really about Lisa Cook’s mortgages—it’s about whether the Fed is independent or just another political arm of the White House.
Bumper sticker ideas...
The Fed Is Above the Law
How Dare You Question My Houses
Justice For the 1%
It's Fine To Cheat On Your Mortgage
I Can't Pick 1 House, I Love Them All
and
I Hate Donald Trump Until 2038
Is the Fed just doing its bit against Trump or is there some reality to their fears of inflation? Probably both.
A story a few weeks back was about how federally-funded Truman Scholarships have become a pipeline from college into the progressive power structure. That's also true to some extent for Rhodes and Marshall scholarships, but the Truman Scholarships go to people with interest in politics and "public service." Cook, who got the Marshall and the Truman, is an example of how the system "works."
Ann Althouse said...
"Ann, this isn’t really about...."
What's the test of what something is "really about."
Who is defending the Fed.
What do they want to happen.
What are the consequences of their actions.
"Ann, this isn’t really about Lisa Cook’s mortgages—it’s about whether the Fed is independent or just another political arm of the White House."
The "cause" requirement is what brings a degree of independence while also respecting the President's obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
There has to be a power to remove. The question is the scope of that power.
So... wonder what the odds are that she voted based on where she has her primary residences...
Achilles, the whole point of Fed independence isn’t to protect one party over another—it’s to prevent short-term politics from wrecking the economy. It doesn’t ‘serve Democrats’ or ‘serve Republicans’ if it’s truly independent; it makes decisions based on inflation, employment, and economic stability. Treating independence as partisan when convenient is exactly why the law exists to protect governors like Cook from summary firing.
If a Trump supporter had done exactly the same thing, the people defending Cook would be calling for her head.
The Fed was the first "independent" agency created in the name of the Progressive notion of government by unelected experts. So an independent agency--not subject to control by any of the 3 branches of government established by the Constitution-- is able to exercise a fundamental governmental power (money creation). See the problem?
"When does Trump send the National Guard to the Federal Reserve building?"
When do the Democrats send the FBI to paw through Trump's wife's underwear drawer? Oh wait, that really happened.
NYC Journolist
I for one would never conflate SEC with FINRA. Mainly because I'd never heard of FINRA before! I had to look it up.
It is a private organization that regulates financial institutions. Another great example of a point I frequently make about how much of our lives are regulated by private organizations like the National Fire Protection Association, UL, National Electrical Code, ASTM, ANSI, ASME, hundreds of others)
Having looked up FINRA, I will stay with my SEC/NYSE comparison. FINRA is a regulatory organization (it appears) whereas the Federal Reserve Banks are actual banks, much like any other bank, doing bankerly stuff.
Only for their members, though, not the public and there are some differences between Fed banks and regular banks.
John Henry
Not only is Cook committing mortgage fraud, she is simultaneously demanding noblesse oblige and declaring her stupidity and incompetence.
She is too stupid to figure out what the meaning of “primary residence” is and it is just so complicated and you must respect her athoritay while she sets monetary policy for the country.
This is a perfect example of how the Democrats have turned our federal government into a giant rice bowl full of weevils and maggots.
Let's just imagine that Trump had declared two "primary residences" What would the fine be? Well we can made the educated guess that it would be about half a billion dollars.
"it’s to prevent short-term politics from wrecking the economy"
Then how did we get the 2008 financial crisis? This was literally caused by the Clinton/Democrat government passing the Community Reinvestment Act - forcing banks to lend money to illegal aliens with zero jobs and black people who have shitty credit histories?
The Fed exists, for Democrats, to provide a liquid source of endless amounts of borrowed money for them to steal and it should be abolished.
"This is not necessarily a good thing, but it was going to happen."
It was a necessary thing, and therefore good.
It never would have happened without Trump. Trump is one of a kind, and so unusual in politics that politics can't deal with him, and politics is so corrupted that there was no other way to get here.
I can't even deal with the thought of where we would be right now if not for the Trump phenomenon. Imagine the Dems unfettered and completely dominating politics and having their way with every issue and policy for the last 10 years. I don't think the nation or the world would be in very good shape by now. Trump throwing a wrench into that was enough to save us. Now we actually have a shot at Making America Great Again.
The defense of Cook is all about politics and control of the Fed. Apparently you can commit any crime you like if getting caught and punished helps Trump. In other words, it's pure projection.
"Trump must have the same motives as we do!"
This is Nietzsche level logic, oh yeah, and that other German philosopher, the really famous one, from the last century,
The Economy: "Oh no! Not Lisa!" Collapses in a heap.
I would be surprised if she decides to spend hundreds of thousands in atty fees fighting this, esp since her odds of prevailing seem pretty slim. And she can probably easily get a higher paying job in the private sector.
We years ago reached the point where Democrats consider criminals an oppressed minority needing protection from law abiding majority.
@bagoh20, FIFY
One could especially interpret their gun control mania as protecting their beloved criminals from prospective victims shooting back.
Ronald J. Ward said...
Achilles, the whole point of Fed independence isn’t to protect one party over another—it’s to prevent short-term politics from wrecking the economy. It doesn’t ‘serve Democrats’ or ‘serve Republicans’ if it’s truly independent; it makes decisions based on inflation, employment, and economic stability. Treating independence as partisan when convenient is exactly why the law exists to protect governors like Cook from summary firing.
No shit Sherlock.
That is why we are upset. The Fed lowered rates for Biden/Harris in September to help their reelection and has refused to lower rates since then even though it is clear he would lower rates if a democrat was in office.
There is no good reason to lower the rates in September and not have lowered them in the spring or summer.
The only reason Jerome Powell hasn’t lowered rates yet is because he is trying to help democrats and hurt republicans. Period.
All this has happened proven is that you don’t actually care about independence and you don’t believe a single word you say.
FINRA is owned by its members, which are the btoker-dealers and exchanges. It is basically the same model as Fed banks created under the same theory. Both institutions are end-runs around the Constitution and enumerated powers. Children of the progressive era.
In the HBO series "The Wire" the team go after Stringer Bell and his gang. A couple of them start digging around in mortgage records and find that Bell has done "Something everyone has done, borrowed money from his parents for a mortgage down payment." Making the point that we don't see it as wrong but it is illegal. ISTR they used this to go after him.
I wonder if there is a team in the WH basement digging away in the mortgages and bank records of so-called enemies looking for legal discrepancies.
Have we ever heard how Leticia James sins came to light? Did some reporter just happen to stumble across them or were they told where to look by someone on Team MAGA?
John Henry
I heard a defense of Lisa Cook's action that stated the problem was how complex and confusing the mortgage process is. That's when I lost confidence. If a Fed Governor can't figure out the mortgage process, they are not qualified for the position they hold.
Remember when Obama's treasury guy Geithner got tagged for misfiling his taxes? (to borrow someone else's tag line, Pepperidge Farm remembers).
If things are too dang hard for a financial experts, they are too dang hard for plumbers and coders.
"I would be surprised if she decides to spend hundreds of thousands in atty fees fighting this, esp since her odds of prevailing seem pretty slim. And she can probably easily get a higher paying job in the private sector."
What makes you think she will have spend even a dime out of pocket? She's a resistance figure now and already has Hunter Biden's attorney lined up.
And her fighting her firing and "standing up to Trump" could enhance private sector prospects.
There is definitely going to be a fight. It will be interesting to see what the Fed does administratively in the interim, if she insists on showing up and pretending to be an official still. Will her FOMC votes still count?
Seems pretty obvious, but if she signed the documents 2 weeks apart, then this certain constrains the argument: Did her primary residence change during those 2 weeks? Did any circumstances come to light within that very short period of time that provide evidence of a change? I'm assuming : no. I'm not familiar with what the corrective actions would have been at the time, once you get a mortgage approved and your circumstances change, is the mortgage holder required to go back and amend the documentation, and does that then change the terms?
Finally: The key question to me is, did she rent any of these properties? It's a little hard to say 'I was confused' when the intent is clear and you're making money.
markets will assume interest rates are set by politics, not economics
C'mon man you cannot really be this dense. Were you possibly in a coma over the last two years?
I was surprised when I learned that Jerome Powell has no educational training in macroeconomics, and Cook is the same. Is there anyone on today’s Federal Reserve Board who actually knows anything about the economy they are charged with minding? Or are they just more dim light bulbs put into their positions by the dimmest light bulb of a President since Warren G. Harding?
@Big Mike: "One could especially interpret their gun control mania as protecting their beloved criminals from prospective victims shooting back."
Blue city/state gun control serves several purposes:
1. It allows single-parent (black female) led households to feel good about their life choices by having a government enforcer of rules because there is no in-house enforcer of anything.
2. They think that making it harder to obtain guns will keep them out of the hands of most violent criminals (i.e., young black males), and thereby keep more of them in the Democrat's voting population (i.e., alive, non-felons).
3. It gives anxious, compassionate blue Karens a feeling of "doing something" even when ineffective or counterproductive.
4. It provides a tool for wealthy oligarchs like Michael Bloomberg to fund (bribe) people for their utopian vision that would otherwise never move forward.
Childers at Coffee and COVID reports that Chris Russo claims to have evidence that she also committed plagiarism... so we'll see about that. I'm waiting the whole thing out.
Sorry, autocorrect error: Chris RUFO
@Wa St Blogger, the joke was on us because Timothy Geithner was, in fact, confirmed and served as Secretary of the Treasury for four years. The casual attitude of well-connected Democrats towards laws and regulations is not a new thing.
I get the feeling that people see patterns, patterns that are taboo to mention, but hard to ignore.
For cause seems really easy to me. She lied, in a mortgage application, to get a better rate - fraud. So, she's on the Fed and lies and commits fraud, and the Democrats want to die on the hill for her? Are they nuts?
Yields staying calm reflects the fact that Trump can't actually fire Cook. The rates market mostly ignores him, eg as it has with the Powell drama.
What happens with him is that he often hypes himself up into doing something which genuinely shocks the market (Liberation Day is the big one here) then the market freaks out and he wimps out. In a way we are in a negative feedback cycle as yields being so calm and MOVE being so low on the complacent belief that he won't make Hassett fed chair.
Which makes it more likely for him to appoint Hassett which would send MOVE to the moon and blow out the mortgage spread on top of a 10 year which could have a 5 handle.
The best thing to do is explain to the American people how Trump’s takeover of the Fed will impact them financially. Because to be brutally honest they care more about that than this.
Enigma: "Blue city/state gun control serves several purposes:"
You left out 5. It frightens away the middle class population who wouldn't vote D anyway, and provides a convenient way to lock up the few who are dumb enough to stay and protect themselves. See, e.g., the St Louis lawyer couple.
RR
JSM
Big Mike
I was in a room (private speaking event) where Ben Bernanke gleefully explained that he taught Powell all of the economics he knows, adding that Powell was just a lawyer when they met. The downside of lawyers is that they are trained that the law trumps human nature, when in reality it is the opposite.
JSM, you make some good points (including those related to USAA). 1) Cook's role was a position of trust, and so she should have conducted herself in such a manner. 2) Even allowing for grey area and circumstances, the particulars of her actions don't pass muster.
As for retribution and whataboutism with Trump; Trump still has a judgement against him for mortgage fraud based on providing valuations that others not a party to the mortgage disagreed. It takes some strict definitions of fraud to include embellishment of one's properties. Who doesn't value their own stuff more than others? However, if you want to hold on to such strict definitions (I don't), then Cook's crime is much worse than Trump's. Let us know when Democrats give up calling Trump's mortgage's frauds, and then we can talk about Cook. Otherwise, Trump has faced far worse scrutiny and has passed muster.
Jim5301, these are all incredibly wealthy people. They fight to keep these positions for the power and prestige. Markets and media hang breathlessly for each of their utterances. She won’t have anything like this attention and authority working as President of Bumfuck Bank no matter how much they pay.
"Yields staying calm reflects the fact that Trump can't actually fire Cook. The rates market mostly ignores him, eg as it has with the Powell drama."
Bich almost surely going to be proven wrong again- it might take a few months but Cook is going to be fired.
Chris-2-4 said... So... wonder what the odds are that she voted based on where she has her primary residences... 8/26/25, 9:28 AM
I was wondering if anyone would bring up the voter registration factor: where IS she registered to vote (which, of course, may be a different issue from, "Where DOES she vote?" :- )
The Fed and Fanny Mae are the closest things that the US has ever had to the Lords and Ladys of old England. They are there because the proles don’t have the breeding to choose.
NO KINGS
The Fed and Fanny Mae are the closest things that the US has ever had to the Lords and Ladys of old England. They are there because the proles don’t have the breeding to choose.
NO KINGS
I wonder two things
1) Are the only people being investigated for dirt so they can try to force a resignation the ones who didn't vote to lower interest rates at the last FOMC meeting?
2) Is Trump now going to post on Truth Social, "I falsified my business assets for this commercial loan. I must resign, now!!!"
This is getting ridiculous.
Surely, she didn't apply for mail in ballots in more than one state?
Re: FINRA. When I worked legal/compliance for a mutual fund company, I took (and passed, glory halleluiah!) the Series 6 and Series 26 broker/dealer license exams.
Eg., ...the 26: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/series26.asp
It was sufficiently long ago that the exams I took were administered under the NASD umbrella. So, for some chronology, NASD was one of the 2007 merger parties that became FINRA.
Yes, buying and selling houses is complicated -- mainly because of government regulations.
Nevertheless, you have mortgage lenders and real estate agents to walk you through the process. Cook was either being fraudulent or lazy and neither is a good look for someone in charge of the Fed.
Will Trump family crypto holdings provide an economic umbrella for the entire nation after Treasury bonds collapse and the stock market crashes?
Kak, that you believe this: "I falsified my business assets for this commercial loan. I must resign, now!!!" is why Cook should have resigned and now must be fired. If you think what Trump did was falsification of assets; then Cook's actions are far worse at face value. I'm sure you disagree, but that's why you are always on the losing side.
Are these folks going after Cook going to put up some actual evidence in the public space?
Kakistocracy said...
Yields staying calm reflects the fact that Trump can't actually fire Cook.
Really Kak?
He cannot fire Cook "for cause"? Can you cite the regulation or law that prevents this?
Section 202 b of the Banking Act of 1935 says:
...thereafter each member shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/banking-act-1935-983/fulltext
Has this been superseded? Can you tell us by what?
Seems pretty explicit that the president can fire her for cause.
The question for the courts is whether her mortgage shenanigans constitute "cause". If they do, he can fire her, right?
John Henry
The regulatory examination team at the Fed would like a word.
#kakoncrackiswack
D.D. Driver said...
Whatever would happen to me should happen to Cook.
Minus the buttsex, I would hope…
Are these folks going after Cook going to put up some actual evidence in the public space?
I understand most search engines and news sources are hiding the original criminal referral, but you can find evidence on X.
Ann, I can’t argue with your legal knowledge. My point is that it isn’t really about Cook’s mortgages; the real question is structural: how far can a president reach into an independent agency? The ‘cause’ requirement exists, as I understand it, to balance presidential oversight with institutional independence, and that’s what’s truly at stake here.
"What should Trump claim as his primary residence? Mar-a-lago? Or inside liberals’ heads?"
I would keep Mar-a-lago as the primary residence- the liberals are literally paying Trump to stay in their heads like an immigrant hotel.
The Cook story isn’t about her mortgages. Please stop being so credulous.
I have only owned one house at time. These people make me feel poor.
Has Cook been charged with any crime?
Your issue is with the Constitution, Ronald. Congress can't create independent agencies at the end of the day. Why is it, do you suppose, that the Federal Reserve Act had the President appoint the governors in the first place if the goal was "independence"? Why not let the member banks appoint them instead? I will answer my own question- because the Federal Reserve had to answer to Chief Executive else Congress could give it no legal authority- the Constitution only allows three branches of government- there is no power given to any fourth one. SCOTUS, if needed, will rule that the President can fire Federal Reserve governors for any cause he so deems fit because there isn't any other alternative authority granted the power to define such cause except for Congress itself and Congress can only discipline this with impeachment and removal.
According to the Fed's website, Lisa Cook is still on the Board and has her committee assignments.
"The NYT states that the allegations against Cook are part of "an emerging pattern of political retribution."
How can it be "retribution" if she was not involved in the attacks political prosecutions against Trump?
I suspect that this is more of an example of: if I got prosecuted for this crime, then everybody who may have comitted this crime needs to get prosecuted and suffer the consequences.
Just a note: "Home of record" and "Primary residence " Are two entirely different things.
For 21 years my home of record was NJ. In 21 years I lived in 7 different states, buying subsequently selling a house in 3 of them. My NJ driver's license had either an out of state street address or FPO address. My automobiles all had NJ plates no matter where I bought them.
Dealers, mortgage companies,bankers, taxing authorities, and me had no problem figuring it all out.
Shortly after marrying, my wife figured it all out. As she went from voting in MD to voting absentee in NJ. without ever actually ever having resided there.
That's what we need, more financial regulators who lie on financial documents. Who in hell wants to defend an obvious liar? Better question, how does the Fed Reserve board act validly with Cook voting?
Gospace: good clarification. But my main point still stands: there are laws that allow military members and their families to do very strange things (e.g., an NJ license with a Kansas or whatever address on it) in order to make their service to the country a little easier. Not to mention the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act.
No one else who moves around a lot - college students, professional athletes, Fuller Brush men, or even direct analogs like merchant seamen or federal civilian employees - gets these privileges. And yet we have to figure out the legal ramifications, however counterintuitive, of having a more complicated life than living, working, etc, all in one community.
Yes, there is a certain amount of schadenfreude in watching some of the very people who make these rules fall afoul of them. But the more grown-up response would be to say this is why they need to be amended.
I would have no problem, for example, with a federal statute that says all homes owned and occupied at least one night/year by a member of Congress, as long as they aren't renting them out, count as primary residences for all legal purposes.
Makes as much sense as nationwide gay marriage.
RR
JSM
Trump is addressing disparate equitable intentions (DEI), a matter of privilege, which would be a cause of celebration if the shoe was on the other foot.
Frequent travelers in diverse residences have rebates due.
It's like there's an Althouse Desk at the troll farm, and when one of them completely destroys his or her credibility, or gets sick of defending the indefensible, they rotate in a new one.
"count as primary residences for all legal purposes."
So do I file my taxes from Florida because I live there one day a year? You are just tap dancing, she screwed up. She left herself open, probably because she is not competent to do her job as described in the job description, but rather she just picks up the phone to be told which way to vote, any research required of her is done for her, and her only real contribution is her skin color and her sex.
"The Cook story isn’t about her mortgages. Please stop being so credulous." - Kaka
What he really means is "Even though it's about her mortgages, I am asking you to be credulous here and believe that it's not."
Remember when Rich said that "it wasn't about classified documents in Melania's underwear drawer, please stop being so credulous."
What Rich is saying is that it is more important to him to have her on the board than it is that she follow the law.
But I am sure that we can creatively interpret a 100 year old law and prosecute her under this new interpretation, holding the trial in Tulsa or Greenbow, Alabama. That's the precedent here.
Jaq: "So do I file my taxes from Florida because I live there one day a year?"
Well, military members with a home of record in FL get to do exactly that without ever setting foot in FL.
We do that by law because we sympathize with the PITA factors of being in the military.
We don't do it for anyone else, even when they have the same PITA factors (including risk of life - I was a federal agent).
Don't get me wrong - I do agree that Prof Cook did some wrong stuff, and, because her job directly involves economic policy, should get the sack. But I'm not going to dance around about it.
RR
JAM
Ronald J. Ward said
"Ann, this isn't really about Lisa Cook's mortgages-it's about whether the Fed is independent or just another political arm of the White House."
Please do show me where there is an "independent" branch of government in the Constitution. Every - EVERY government employee answers to one of the 3 branches. No exceptions.
John Mosby, some of those are bad analogies. Starting with- college students.
Students, at one point, couldn't vote where they were temporarily residing using their dorm or fraternity address. They had to vote absentee back at their home of record. Courts ruled that wasn't fair... so now a large college in a small town can elect people who don't actually represent the town. Thanks to courts ruling on "fairness" rather than longstanding law.
Do you know any merchant sailors? All I have known have one home of record they return to after a stint at sea. Where they do all their legal type business through.
Athletes are an entirely different case. Apparently they can be legally taxed in every state they play in. Totally and completely unfair, especially if you go back to that old saying- no taxation without representation. Because an out of state player playing a game in NY is earning his salary for that day in NY. Laws protecting servicemen protected my military salary from state taxes in CA. Though I do believe they still want to tax 4/21 of my retirement pay because I earnes that living in CA twice for two years. Sort of- spent more then a year at sea each time... Athletes do have, most of them, a primary residencewhile playing. It is usually where the team is based. .But not necessarily. I didn't on my route, but other newspaper delivery boys I knew in NJ had Mets, Yankees, and Giants on their routes. So a fair question is- should their pay be taxable in every state they play in during a season? Or only where the team is located?
Singers and performers are a whole other deal.
Another of MLK's dreams realized: black woman has rich white people's problem. Trump wins again.
Historical footnote: The Federal Reserve was founded during the Wilson presidency. Its first Governor was Benjamin Strong. He had been J.P. Morgan's field marshal during the 1907 Panic. It was presumed that he knew a lot about money. Unfortunately he contracted TB, and beyond that his first wife committed suicide and his second wife had deserted him. Due to illness and depression, he was something of an absentee Governor. He was also wrong about a lot of things. During the twenties he kept US interest rates lower than that of Great Britain. He did this as a favor to his counterpart at the Bank of England so they could get back on the gold standard. Those low interest rates were a substantial part of the twenties stock market boom and also of the leveraging that caused the subsequent crash to be so catastrophic......There you have it. Almost from its moment of birth, the Federal Reserve was misguided and wrong. They're pretending that the Federal Reserve, like the College of Cardinals, is some kind of divine institution that somehow above the affairs of us ordinary men.
"...to remove you from your position."
I think a job ("position") is created by the employer - in this case the Government, ultimately the People - which retains ownership and control of it.
"According to the Fed's website, Lisa Cook is still on the Board and has her committee assignments."
This will go to court almost instantly- if she continues to show up the DoJ will take this to federal court. She will be out of a job within 2-3 months, probably after SCOTUS refuses to take her appeal at some point.
Please do show me where there is an "independent" branch of government in the Constitution. Every - EVERY government employee answers to one of the 3 branches. No exceptions.
Well, there is the part about the various states and the 10th Amendment.
However, I am enjoying the people warning us that President Trump will destroy Democracy arguing that Congress can create organizations that have authority over our economy and finances but don't have to answer to the people. The arguments rhyme with the rationale that gave us a Democrat Presidential candidate that wasn't democratically selected. It is also a case of some people being above the law because no controlling legal authority.
"According to the Fed's website, Lisa Cook is still on the Board and has her committee assignments."
That's an argument for more DOGE.
Trump will now own it. He is removing his best whipping boy.
How cute. As if Trump wouldn't be blamed no matter what.
".. the allegations against Cook are part of "an emerging pattern of political" people screwing the system for their own profit.
Re: Chris M's comment about nannies etc,
Thirty years ago we had a live-in, a legacy of Tienanmen Square. She planned to apply for P.R., so I did everything carefully above board. Which meant, one year, filing NINETEEN returns covering her and my family.
I have a lot of sympathy for people who try to comply, but eventually say Eff This and pay cash.
I owned two houses at one time. We'd both retired to our long term home. Then, because she has extraordinary managerial skills, an animal shelter some 100 miles away from our original begged my wife to run/straighten out the shelter. We bought a fairly modest place where she lived more than half the time (to our original home MOST weekends). I was up there a fair amount as volunteer/free labor.
Gee, for some reason, maybe because I answered honestly, the state determined I only got a lower tax rate on the original home, but not the second one. The modest house cost me twice the property tax as the much larger, more valuable, home.
Old dopey me failing to lie for the sake of a few thousand dollars.
If it was mortgage fraud, there is still the question of who committed the fraud. It could just as easily have been the bank originating the mortgage on the second home, labeling it a primary residence would probably make the loan easier to sell in the secondary market. We don’t really know yet.
Seems to me the current Fed Board is exemplifying independence by not taking a position on Trump's attempted firing of one of its governors. Instead will let an independent judiciary be the decider.
Makes sense to me.
This will go to court almost instantly- if she continues to show up the DoJ will take this to federal court. She will be out of a job within 2-3 months, probably after SCOTUS refuses to take her appeal at some point.
To hell with that. Post a couple of US Marshals at the door and refuse to let her enter.
Are these folks going after Cook going to put up some actual evidence in the public space?
Have you ever bought a house? Your deed, mortgage contract, and a bunch of other paperwork gets filed with the county recorder, and can be pored over by anyone nosey enough to ask for it.
Actually, these days it's all online in PDF format and can be downloaded by anyone with a few clicks of the mouse.
If it was mortgage fraud, there is still the question of who committed the fraud.
When we purchased out current home, we found a couple of errors made by the mortgage company while at closing and being asked to sign the documentation. We refused to sign until the corrections were made, because we understood what we were signing and that the information was incorrect.
Your argument is that a member Federal Reserve Board doesn't have the same scrutiny for legal documents she is signing and will be held to account? Again, I'm seeing reason for cause to fire.
Please continue.
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