tyb
bun going.
Fed Nominee Shelton Faces Tough Questioning Before Senate Committee
WASHINGTON — Judy Shelton, President Trump’s nominee for the Federal Reserve, faced tough questioning from lawmakers over whether she would protect the Fed’s independence during a tense confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
Skepticism toward Ms. Shelton appeared to be bipartisan, with Democrats suggesting she might be politically tied to Mr. Trump and some Republicans questioning her monetary views.
Ms. Shelton, 65, has been a controversial pick for the job. She has a history of supporting the gold standard, has questioned the need for the Fed, and has changed her policy views significantly since Mr. Trump, for whom she served as an unofficial campaign adviser, came into office.
Senator Mike Crapo, the Idaho Republican who chairs the committee, sought to portray Ms. Shelton as a solid pick for diversity who would defend Fed independence despite her ties to Mr. Trump. Democrats quizzed her on whether she felt Mr. Trump’s frequent attacks on Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell are inappropriate.
“Frankly, no one tells me what to do,” Ms. Shelton said at one point. “I don’t think it’s the job of the Federal Reserve to accommodate political agendas” and “the Fed operates independently, as it should.”
But she indicated that she does not have a problem with Mr. Trump’s frequent criticisms of Mr. Powell. The president regularly blasts the Fed Chair on Twitter and in public remarks, faulting him for not doing more to boost the economy and pushing him to cut interest rates more aggressively.
“I do believe that every American, every member of Congress” and “our President” have the right to criticize the Fed, she said, adding later that “in some ways, it’s refreshing that it is out in the open.” Ms. Shelton was asked repeatedly about her history of supporting a gold standard, a monetary approach that the United States abandoned half a century ago because it was deemed impractical. Mainstream economists generally say that returning to a gold-backed currency would be economically damaging, if it were even possible.
“You never go back, with money,” Ms. Shelton said during the hearing, suggesting she was surprised that people portrayed her as supporting a return to a traditional gold standard. At one point Ms. Shelton said that she “would not advocate going back to a prior historical monetary arrangement.”
Ms. Shelton started a 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial with the line: “Let’s go back to the gold standard.”
Republicans expressed some concerns about Ms. Shelton’s views.
Senator Patrick J. Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, called Ms. Shelton’s view that the Fed should pay attention to foreign exchange rates “dangerous.”
“I remain concerned,” he told reporters outside of the hearing, saying that he has not yet made up his mind on Ms. Shelton’s nomination. He said he would be willing to oppose one of Mr. Trump’s nominees if he thinks the “nominee is unsuitable for the job.”
Ms. Shelton must first be confirmed by the Senate Banking Committee and then by the full Senate in order to win a seat on the Fed Board.
https://latestnewsglobal.com/2020/02/fed-nominee-shelton-faces-tough-questioning-before-senate-committee/
it's yours. only do this when it's needed. start it when youz guise say needed or required and then dump it if not needed. always ready for it
o7
did one last night when problems hit. been about a week or so.
ty baker I do appreciate that much.
muh feelz-kek!
07
fixed and placed back to it's rightful place…treasury
and I am well aware of this fren. Don't be a faggot.
I know who, what, where and why and have for years.
POTUS Fed nominee Shelton hits bipartisan skepticism in Senate hearing
Federal Reserve board nominee Judy Shelton faced deep skepticism from Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, as lawmakers challenged her independence from President Donald Trump and characterized her thinking as too far outside the mainstream to trust with the nation’s economy.
Over the course of the roughly two-hour hearing she found herself having to back away from prior views, explain that she would not pursue a common North American currency with Canada and Mexico if confirmed as a Fed governor, and even apologize for comparing a currency forger’s challenge of the federal government’s dominance over money to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks’ challenge of segregation laws.
“I apologize for the comparison. I truly do,” Shelton said of an incident raised by Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones in which a North Carolina man issued millions of dollars of his own precious-metal backed currency. “I believe he was testing the idea” that money needed to be backed by gold and silver, Shelton explained.
“Is that something you want to test?” Jones shot back, summing up committee concerns about past Shelton writings seeming to support a return to something like a gold or other asset-backed standard to keep the value of the dollar stable.
“No, senator,” said Shelton, a member of the Trump transition team and a long-time conservative author and commentator on financial issues.
It was one of a series of pointed exchanges between senators and Shelton, an economist with a long track record criticizing the Fed and questioning, at least in theory, whether central banks can even do the job assigned to them.
Three Republican senators were notably sharp in their questions, and two indicated afterwards she had not fully resolved their concerns - enough to sink her nomination on a committee divided between 13 Republicans and 12 Democrats. Four previous Trump appointees to the Fed failed to clear the Senate, a sign of the weight Congress has put on keeping the country’s monetary policy as free as possible of political interference, given Trump’s open verbal attacks on the Fed and demand for lower interest rates.
Asked about Trump’s war-by-tweet against the Fed, Shelton responded “I don’t censor what someone says.”
But during the hearing Pennsylvania Republican Senator Patrick Toomey called her views about using the Fed to manage the value of the dollar against other currencies “a very very dangerous path to go down.” Trump has often blamed the Fed for a rising dollar, which he argues has hurt exports. Shelton has often written about the need for a “sound” dollar.
A spokesman for Toomey said afterwards that the senator was undecided and that Shelton’s answers “didn’t alleviate” his concerns.
Alabama Senator Richard Shelby also “has not decided at this point, I know he still has some concerns,” the senator’s communications director, Blair Taylor, told Reuters.
Shelton, who holds a doctorate in business administration and has been sharply critical of the Federal Reserve in her writings and commentary, pledged broadly that she would be an independent thinker who would work well with existing Fed officials.
“I pledge to be independent in my decision-making, and frankly no one tells me what to do,” Shelton said, deflecting questions about her past writings that, for example, characterized the Fed’s setting of a short-term interest rate as similar to Soviet central planning.
“I don’t claim to be in the mainstream of economists….I would bring my own perspective. But I think the intellectual diversity strengthens the discussion.”
Senate Democrats said flatly that they do not trust her.
“Shelton has flip-flopped on too many issues to be confirmed,” said Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. “She is far outside the mainstream. She is outside the ideological spectrum.” A second nominee, Christopher Waller, a career economist who is currently the research director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, faced few questions about his views.
Both were nominated by Trump to fill vacant seats on the Fed’s seven-member Washington-based Board of Governors.
Both Waller and Shelton released opening statements on Wednesday ahead of their hearings that offered few clues about their views on monetary policy beyond promising to promote policies that support financial stability and help the Fed meet its goals of full employment and price stability. The two emphasized the Fed’s accountability to Congress, which oversees the central bank.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-nominees/trump-fed-nominee-shelton-hits-bipartisan-skepticism-in-senate-hearing-idUSKBN20724B
of course they lay off the one already employed by the Fed bank St. Louis
I hear you. I should have said the change to place back to treasury in the first place. It all needs to be wiped away. We good.
U.S., Taliban Negotiate Short-Term Deal To Reduce Violence
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper revealed Thursday that the U.S. and Taliban reached a deal “for a seven-day reduction in violence,” he told reporters during a visit to Brussels where he’s meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers.
“The United States and the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a seven-day reduction in violence. I am here today consulting with allies about this proposal and we’ve had a series of productive bilateral and collective meetings about the path forward,” Sec. Esper said during a news conference.
US DefSec Mark Esper at NATO: "The United States & the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a seven-day reduction in violence. I am here today consulting with allies about this proposal & we've had a series of productive bilateral & collective meetings about the path forward.” pic.twitter.com/mlauJiUGwN
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) February 13, 2020
He continued, “We’ve said all along that the best if not only solution in Afghanistan is a political agreement. Progress has been made on this front and I will have more to report on that soon, I hope.”
This is a welcoming development and I am pleased that our principal position on peace thus far has begun to yield fruitful results. Our primary objective is to end the senseless bloodshed.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) February 11, 2020
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will manage the next steps in a manner that positively supports the overall peace process and will report to the public.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) February 11, 2020
President Donald Trump is committed to downsizing the number of U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan and establishing peace with the Taliban. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani spoke this week with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who reported “notable progress” in the bilateral peace talks.
“This is a welcoming development and I am pleased that our principal position on peace thus far has begun to yield fruitful results. Our primary objective is to end the senseless bloodshed,” Pres. Ghani wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
https://saraacarter.com/u-s-taliban-negotiate-short-term-deal-to-reduce-violence/