Warren Calls for Investigation into the Fed, Says Powell Has ‘Failed’ as Chair

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is seeking an independent investigation into the Federal Reserve as well as the U.S. banking regulatory system while calling out Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for failing in his duties.

“I’m calling for an independent investigation of the Fed and the whole regulatory system here. The fed doesn’t just get to do its own investigation,” Warren told host Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week.

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Warren’s comments come following the failure of two regional banks, Silicon Valley Bank (S.V.B.) and Signature Bank. The Fed has announced it will investigate S.V.B.’s collapse, but Warren also wants the agency to roll back deregulation enacted under the Trump administration and to “look at these banks with much more scrutiny.”

Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Warren went directly after Powell, a Trump appointee, saying he “took a flamethrower to the regulations.” “He had two jobs,” the senator said. “I think he’s failing in both jobs both as the oversight manager of these big banks, which is his job, and also what he’s doing with inflation.” To slow inflation, the Fed has been raising interest rates.

“Look, I don’t think he should be Chairman of the Federal Reserve,” Warren added, noting that she opposed his nomination during the Trump presidency. “I have said it as publicly as I know how to say it. I’ve said it to everyone.”

Warren also wants the executives of failed banks to be held accountable and asked for new regulations to prevent CEOs of collapsed banks from leading a bank in the future. Last week, Warren penned an op-ed in The New York Times addressing the recent bank collapses.

“These bank failures were entirely avoidable if Congress and the Fed had done their jobs and kept strong banking regulations in place since 2018,” she wrote. “S.V.B. and Signature are gone, and now Washington must act quickly to prevent the next crisis.”

President Joe Biden has also asked Congress to pass legislation establishing penalties for executives of failed banks. Meanwhile, people on the right, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson are trying to blame diversity and inclusion initiatives as well as former President Obama for S.V.B.’s collapse.

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