‘Sell America’: Investors dump U.S. assets in fear of the end of Fed independence

Whoever replaces Jerome Powell as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve in May knows one thing: If they don’t do what President Donald Trump wants, they risk being criminally prosecuted. That was the unambiguous message in Powell’s extraordinary statement yesterday, in which he vowed to continue to set monetary policy independently despite the federal grand jury subpoenas investigating his statements to Congress about alleged cost overruns in the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters. “This new threat is not ...