U.S. Housing Leaders Urge Congressional Investigation Into Fed Chair Jerome Powell
In a significant development shaking political and financial circles, the Chairman overseeing U.S. Federal Housing along with top leadership at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have jointly called on Congress to launch a formal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The unprecedented request comes amid growing concerns over the Fed's recent monetary policy decisions and their ripple effects on the housing market, affordability, and mortgage-backed securities. While specific details of the allegations remain under wraps, sources suggest that the call for investigation focuses on potential conflicts of interest and a lack of transparency in recent rate decisions.
'The American people deserve accountability, especially when economic policies directly impact housing affordability and market stability,' the housing chairman said in a brief statement. He emphasized the need for bipartisan cooperation to 'protect institutional integrity and restore trust.'
Leaders at both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac echoed the sentiment, citing serious concerns about how Federal Reserve policy has disproportionately affected low- and middle-income homeowners, as well as the secondary mortgage market.
Chairman Powell has not yet responded publicly to the request. The Federal Reserve has, however, previously defended its policies as being driven by data and aimed at taming inflation while promoting stable employment.
What's Next?
Congress is expected to address the request in an upcoming session. If approved, it would mark a rare and high-profile investigation into a sitting Fed Chair, potentially influencing future monetary and housing policy directions.
This is a developing story. More updates to follow.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nahar Net
3 hours ago
- Nahar Net
American bombs in Iran also reverberate in China and North Korea
by Naharnet Newsdesk 6 hours President Donald Trump campaigned on keeping the United States out of foreign wars, but it didn't take long to convince him to come to the direct aid of Israel, hitting Iranian nuclear targets with bunker-buster bombs dropped by B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine. Beyond the attack's immediate impact on helping bring the 12-day war to a close, experts say Trump's decision to use force against another country also will certainly be reverberating in the Asia-Pacific, Washington's priority theater. "Trump's strikes on Iran show that he's not afraid to use military force — this would send a clear message to North Korea, and even to China and Russia, about Trump's style," said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security based in Seoul, South Korea. "Before the strikes, Pyongyang and Beijing might have assumed that Trump is risk averse, particularly based on his behavior his first presidency despite some tough talk," Kim said. China, North Korea and Russia all condemn US strike Ten days into the war between Israel and Iran, Trump made the risky decision to step in, hitting three nuclear sites with American firepower on June 22 in a bid to destroy the country's nuclear program at a time while negotiations between Washington and Tehran were still ongoing. The attacks prompted a pro forma Iranian retaliatory strike the following day on a U.S. base in nearby Qatar, which caused no casualties, and both Iran and Israel then agreed to a ceasefire on June 24. North Korea, China and Russia all were quick to condemn the American attack, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it "unprovoked aggression," China's Foreign Ministry saying it violated international law and "exacerbated tensions in the Middle East," and North Korea's Foreign Ministry maintaining it "trampled down the territorial integrity and security interests of a sovereign state." While the strikes were a clear tactical success, the jury is still out on whether they will have a more broad strategic benefit to Washington's goals in the Middle East or convince Iran it needs to work harder than ever to develop a nuclear deterrent, possibly pulling the U.S. back into a longer-term conflict. US allies could see attack as positive sign for deterrence If the attack remains a one-off strike, U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region likely will see the decision to become involved as a positive sign from Trump's administration, said Euan Graham, a senior defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "The U.S. strike on Iran will be regarded as net plus by Pacific allies if it is seen to reinforce red lines, restore deterrence and is of limited duration, so as not to pull the administration off-course from its stated priorities in the Indo-Pacific," he said. "China will take note that Trump is prepared to use force, at least opportunistically." In China, many who have seen Trump as having a "no-war mentality" will reassess that in the wake of the attacks, which were partially aimed at forcing Iran's hand in nuclear program negotiations, said Zhao Minghao, an international relations professor at China's Fudan University in Shanghai. "The way the U.S. used power with its air attacks against Iran is something China needs to pay attention to," he said. "How Trump used power to force negotiations has a significance for how China and the U.S. will interact in the future." But, he said, Washington should not think it can employ the same strategy with Beijing. "If a conflict breaks out between China and the U.S., it may be difficult for the U.S. to withdraw as soon as possible, let alone withdraw unscathed," he said. China and North Korea present different challenges Indeed, China and North Korea present very different challenges than Iran. First and foremost, both already have nuclear weapons, raising the stakes of possible retaliation considerably in the event of any attack. There also is no Asian equivalent of Israel, whose relentless attacks on Iranian missile defenses in the opening days of the war paved the way for the B-2 bombers to fly in and out without a shot being fired at them. Still, the possibility of the U.S. becoming involved in a conflict involving either China or North Korea is a very real one, and Beijing and Pyongyang will almost certainly try to assess what the notoriously unpredictable Trump would do. North Korea will likely be "quite alarmed" at what Israel, with a relatively small but high-quality force, has been able to achieve over Iran, said Joseph Dempsey, a defense expert with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. At the same time, it likely will be seen internally as justification for its own nuclear weapons program, "If Iran did have deployable nuclear weapons would this have occurred?" Dempsey said. "Probably not." The U.S. decision to attack while still in talks with Iran will also not go unnoticed, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at South Korea's Institute for National Unification. "North Korea may conclude that dialogue, if done carelessly, could backfire by giving the United States a pretext for possible aggression," he said. "Instead of provoking the Trump administration, North Korea is more likely to take an even more passive stance toward negotiations with Washington, instead focusing on strengthening its internal military buildup and pursuing closer ties with Russia, narrowing the prospects for future talks," he said. China and Taiwan will draw lessons China will look at the attacks through the visor of Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island off its coast that China claims as its own territory and President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking by force. The U.S. supplies Taiwan with weapons and is one of its most important allies, though Washington's official policy on whether it would come to Taiwan's aid in the case of a conflict with China is known as "strategic ambiguity," meaning not committing to how it would respond. Militarily, the strike on Iran raises the question of whether the U.S. might show less restraint than has been expected by China in its response and hit targets on the Chinese mainland in the event of an invasion of Taiwan, said Drew Thompson, senior fellow with the Singapore-based think tank RSIS Rajaratnam School of International Studies. It will also certainly underscore for Beijing the "difficulty of predicting Trump's actions," he said. "The U.S. airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities caught many by surprise," Thompson said. "I think it demonstrated a tolerance and acceptance of risk in the Trump administration that is perhaps surprising." It also gives rise to a concern that Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te, who in recent speeches has increased warnings about the threat from China, may be further emboldened in his rhetoric, said Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based foreign policy think tank Defense Priorities. Already, Lai's words have prompted China to accuse him of pursuing Taiwanese independence, which is a red line for Beijing. Goldstein said he worried Taiwan may try to take advantage of the American "use of force against Iran to increase its deterrent situation versus the mainland." "President Lai's series of recent speeches appear almost designed to set up a new cross-strait crisis, perhaps in the hopes of building more support in Washington and elsewhere around the Pacific," said Goldstein, who also is director of the China Initiative at Brown University's Watson Institute. "I think that is an exceedingly risky gambit, to put it mildly," he said.
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Trump says US has given Ukraine too many weapons
by Naharnet Newsdesk 04 July 2025, 15:02 President Donald Trump complained Thursday that the United States provided too many weapons to Ukraine under the previous administration, his first public comments on the pause in some shipments as Russia escalates its latest offensive. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One for a flight to Iowa, Trump said former President Joe Biden "emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves." Air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons are among those being withheld from Ukraine. The country suffered a new barrage overnight, with warnings of ballistic missiles followed by explosions in Kyiv. The sound of machine gun fire and drone engines could be heard across the capital. Trump, who also spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, suggested he wasn't completely cutting off American assistance to Ukraine. "We've given so many weapons," he said, adding that "we are working with them and trying to help them." Trump said he had a "pretty long call" with Putin that "didn't make any progress" in resolving the war, which the Republican president had promised to swiftly bring to a conclusion. "I'm not happy about that," he said. The Kremlin described the conversation as "frank and constructive" — the sixth publicly disclosed chat between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House. While discussing the situation around Iran and in the broader Middle East, Putin emphasized the need to resolve all differences "exclusively by political and diplomatic means," said Yuri Ushakov, his foreign affairs adviser. The leaders agreed that Russian and U.S. officials will maintain contact on the issue, he added. The United States struck three sites in Iran on June 22, inserting itself into Israel's war aimed at destroying Tehran's nuclear program. On the conflict in Ukraine, Ushakov said Trump emphasized his push for a quick halt to the fighting, and Putin voiced Moscow's readiness to pursue talks with Kyiv, noting the previous rounds in Turkey yielded humanitarian results. At the same time, the Russian leader emphasized that Moscow will seek to achieve its goals in Ukraine and remove the "root causes" of the conflict, Ushakov said. "Russia will not back down from these goals," Ushakov told reporters after the call. Putin has argued he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to fend off a threat to Russia posed by Ukraine's push to join NATO and to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine — arguments rejected by Kyiv and its allies. He insisted that any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine abandon its NATO bid and recognize Russia's territorial gains. Ushakov said a suspension of some U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine wasn't discussed in the Trump-Putin call. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Denmark after meeting with major European Union backers that he may talk to Trump in the coming days about the suspension. "I hope that maybe tomorrow, or close days, these days, I will speak about it with President Trump," he said. The previous publicly known call between Trump and Putin came June 14, a day after Israel attacked Iran. The resumed contact between Trump and Putin appeared to reflect their interest in mending U.S.-Russian ties that have plummeted to their lowest point since the Cold War. Ushakov said the leaders discussed developments in Syria and expressed interest in pursuing bilateral projects in the energy sector and space exploration, during what he described as "frank, businesslike and concrete conversation." The Kremlin adviser added that Putin even suggested that the U.S. and Russia could exchange movies promoting "traditional values shared by us and the Trump administration." On Tuesday, Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron held their first direct telephone call in almost three years.
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Nahar Net
American bombs in Iran also reverberate in China and North Korea
by Naharnet Newsdesk 04 July 2025, 15:04 President Donald Trump campaigned on keeping the United States out of foreign wars, but it didn't take long to convince him to come to the direct aid of Israel, hitting Iranian nuclear targets with bunker-buster bombs dropped by B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine. Beyond the attack's immediate impact on helping bring the 12-day war to a close, experts say Trump's decision to use force against another country also will certainly be reverberating in the Asia-Pacific, Washington's priority theater. "Trump's strikes on Iran show that he's not afraid to use military force — this would send a clear message to North Korea, and even to China and Russia, about Trump's style," said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security based in Seoul, South Korea. "Before the strikes, Pyongyang and Beijing might have assumed that Trump is risk averse, particularly based on his behavior his first presidency despite some tough talk," Kim said. China, North Korea and Russia all condemn US strike Ten days into the war between Israel and Iran, Trump made the risky decision to step in, hitting three nuclear sites with American firepower on June 22 in a bid to destroy the country's nuclear program at a time while negotiations between Washington and Tehran were still ongoing. The attacks prompted a pro forma Iranian retaliatory strike the following day on a U.S. base in nearby Qatar, which caused no casualties, and both Iran and Israel then agreed to a ceasefire on June 24. North Korea, China and Russia all were quick to condemn the American attack, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it "unprovoked aggression," China's Foreign Ministry saying it violated international law and "exacerbated tensions in the Middle East," and North Korea's Foreign Ministry maintaining it "trampled down the territorial integrity and security interests of a sovereign state." While the strikes were a clear tactical success, the jury is still out on whether they will have a more broad strategic benefit to Washington's goals in the Middle East or convince Iran it needs to work harder than ever to develop a nuclear deterrent, possibly pulling the U.S. back into a longer-term conflict. US allies could see attack as positive sign for deterrence If the attack remains a one-off strike, U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region likely will see the decision to become involved as a positive sign from Trump's administration, said Euan Graham, a senior defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "The U.S. strike on Iran will be regarded as net plus by Pacific allies if it is seen to reinforce red lines, restore deterrence and is of limited duration, so as not to pull the administration off-course from its stated priorities in the Indo-Pacific," he said. "China will take note that Trump is prepared to use force, at least opportunistically." In China, many who have seen Trump as having a "no-war mentality" will reassess that in the wake of the attacks, which were partially aimed at forcing Iran's hand in nuclear program negotiations, said Zhao Minghao, an international relations professor at China's Fudan University in Shanghai. "The way the U.S. used power with its air attacks against Iran is something China needs to pay attention to," he said. "How Trump used power to force negotiations has a significance for how China and the U.S. will interact in the future." But, he said, Washington should not think it can employ the same strategy with Beijing. "If a conflict breaks out between China and the U.S., it may be difficult for the U.S. to withdraw as soon as possible, let alone withdraw unscathed," he said. China and North Korea present different challenges Indeed, China and North Korea present very different challenges than Iran. First and foremost, both already have nuclear weapons, raising the stakes of possible retaliation considerably in the event of any attack. There also is no Asian equivalent of Israel, whose relentless attacks on Iranian missile defenses in the opening days of the war paved the way for the B-2 bombers to fly in and out without a shot being fired at them. Still, the possibility of the U.S. becoming involved in a conflict involving either China or North Korea is a very real one, and Beijing and Pyongyang will almost certainly try to assess what the notoriously unpredictable Trump would do. North Korea will likely be "quite alarmed" at what Israel, with a relatively small but high-quality force, has been able to achieve over Iran, said Joseph Dempsey, a defense expert with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. At the same time, it likely will be seen internally as justification for its own nuclear weapons program, "If Iran did have deployable nuclear weapons would this have occurred?" Dempsey said. "Probably not." The U.S. decision to attack while still in talks with Iran will also not go unnoticed, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at South Korea's Institute for National Unification. "North Korea may conclude that dialogue, if done carelessly, could backfire by giving the United States a pretext for possible aggression," he said. "Instead of provoking the Trump administration, North Korea is more likely to take an even more passive stance toward negotiations with Washington, instead focusing on strengthening its internal military buildup and pursuing closer ties with Russia, narrowing the prospects for future talks," he said. China and Taiwan will draw lessons China will look at the attacks through the visor of Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island off its coast that China claims as its own territory and President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking by force. The U.S. supplies Taiwan with weapons and is one of its most important allies, though Washington's official policy on whether it would come to Taiwan's aid in the case of a conflict with China is known as "strategic ambiguity," meaning not committing to how it would respond. Militarily, the strike on Iran raises the question of whether the U.S. might show less restraint than has been expected by China in its response and hit targets on the Chinese mainland in the event of an invasion of Taiwan, said Drew Thompson, senior fellow with the Singapore-based think tank RSIS Rajaratnam School of International Studies. It will also certainly underscore for Beijing the "difficulty of predicting Trump's actions," he said. "The U.S. airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities caught many by surprise," Thompson said. "I think it demonstrated a tolerance and acceptance of risk in the Trump administration that is perhaps surprising." It also gives rise to a concern that Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te, who in recent speeches has increased warnings about the threat from China, may be further emboldened in his rhetoric, said Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based foreign policy think tank Defense Priorities. Already, Lai's words have prompted China to accuse him of pursuing Taiwanese independence, which is a red line for Beijing. Goldstein said he worried Taiwan may try to take advantage of the American "use of force against Iran to increase its deterrent situation versus the mainland." "President Lai's series of recent speeches appear almost designed to set up a new cross-strait crisis, perhaps in the hopes of building more support in Washington and elsewhere around the Pacific," said Goldstein, who also is director of the China Initiative at Brown University's Watson Institute. "I think that is an exceedingly risky gambit, to put it mildly," he said.
