As The Rich Start To Struggle, Will They Pull Down The Economy? | Danielle DiMartino Booth

**Danielle DiMartino Booth** (0:00)
We've got a real problem on our hands, Adam. If the top 10% even gets nervous.

**Adam Taggart** (0:13)
Welcome to Thoughtful Money. I'm Thoughtful Money Founder and your host, Adam Taggart, welcoming you here for a special interview with my great friend, Danielle DiMartino Booth. I can think of very few people, if none, to talk with this morning after yet another Federal Reserve FOMC release, Jerome Powell Presser. This one, if I'm not mistaken, Danielle, you thought was one of the bigger snoozefests in a long time.

**Danielle DiMartino Booth** (0:36)
It was pretty boring. I mean, all the reporters were geared up for drama, and National Enquirer headlines, and all they got was buried in the last section of the Wall Street Journal. It was just a snoozefest.

**Adam Taggart** (0:51)
Okay. So the Fed didn't surprise anybody. There was no change to the policy rate. There was no change to QT. Paul bopped and weaved to avoid all their questions about the political stuff. There was one thing there that caught my attention, but before I ask that, because it'll be a segue into the next part of our conversation, do you have anything else just in general to say about the Fed right now, whether it's about the lawsuit that the administration has put against Powell or the Supreme Court case with Lisa Cook, or just the constant horse race with who might replace Powell. Any of that you want to comment on or is there not too much to talk about?

**Danielle DiMartino Booth** (1:37)
I think that the administration's deny, deny, deny in terms of their knowledge of the criminal allegations, signifies that the administration really hopes that it goes away quickly, because it was a huge backfire.

**Adam Taggart** (1:56)
I'm starting to interrupt, but just so you can put this in your answer, I've been wondering, why do they even do it? The clock's almost out on Paul. Like, why do something that politically sensitive this late in the game?

**Danielle DiMartino Booth** (2:06)
Right, exactly. And that's why some of the newswires reported that Bill Poulty had been involved. He denied that.
The short answer is, I have no idea, because it was, again, one of the most ill-timed, to your point, and ludicrous, by the way, I mean, to suggest perjury. We're talking about Jerome Powell Esquire here, and somebody who was complying with building codes in Washington, DC., trying to get asbestos and God knows what else out of a building that was constructed in 1937 This is just asinine, Adam.

**Adam Taggart** (2:47)
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, look, Trump already has enough suspicion that, hey, you're trying to put in a Fed chair who's just basically going to be a toady for you. So why stir up additional concerns about Fed independence? Again, if you just waited a couple of months, the guy would be gone anyways.

**Danielle DiMartino Booth** (3:04)
Or not, because he refused to answer the other question yesterday when asked whether he was planning to leave, and he just brushed out. Before these allegations were made, these charges were brought. There was a 90 percent chance that he was leaving. Now, according to the betting markets, because we can bet on everything, including, who knew, the return of Jesus Christ in 2025
But according to the betting markets now, the odds of Powell leaving are closer to 60 percent. So they've declined. And he refused to answer the question. You know what? He's playing, he's the cat, as I said yesterday, and Trump is the mouse. Now he's playing cat and mouse because Trump's hands are tied. Stephen Myron's position ends in about, oh, I don't know, less than 48 hours. And his position on the board could be the only one that Trump can replace if Powell does not leave.

**Adam Taggart** (4:01)
Right. And you, I think, understand Powell the man better than most. Is he the kind of guy who's likely to kind of get a little pissed off and say, yeah, I'll stick around and I'll kind of be a gadfly for you for the next couple of years?

**Danielle DiMartino Booth** (4:16)
If that wasn't, he would have simply answered the, well, I think he's considering it now, Adam. Let's put it that way. I think he's considering it. And I don't think he was considering it before, but I think he understands the reason he brought up Paul Volcker when asked, why did you attend the Supreme Court hearing of Lisa Cook? He brought up the example of Paul Volcker as having also attended a federal Supreme Court hearing. Paul Volcker, in addition to Mariner, I cannot say his first name, Chair Eccles, who then became Governor Eccles, whose name then went on the building. They're the only two Fed Chairs to ever stay on as Governors after their Chair term ended. He brought up his hero's name, Volcker. I think he's considering it, and I think that that's extremely important because he would effectively become the shadow Chair that we were worried that Trump was going to install when he first got into office.