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New York Post
a day ago
- Business
- New York Post
Powell's $2.5B Fed revamp denial exposes his privileged arrogance
Is Jerome Powell a liar or a fool? The august chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Chair told the Senate Banking Committee last week, 'There's no VIP dining room, there's no new marble. There are no special elevators' in the $2.5 billion renovation work at the central bank's Washington headquarters. 'There are no new water features, there's no beehives, and there's no roof terrace gardens.' In short, he categorically denied The Post's reporting on the swanky 'Palace of Versailles' redo — but without any explanation of why the project's planning documents include all those features. Those plans haven't been revised since 2021, when the work began, with an estimated cost of $1.9 billion. How did the price soar more than 30% if so many luxury items got dropped? All the guy who literally controls America's money supply could offer up was: 'The cost overruns are what they are.' OK; the Fed chief may not have perjured himself; he may well not know what's going on around him. We're pretty sure he knows how to read a spreadsheet — if he can be bothered to look. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Powell's disdain for questions about the taxpayers having to shell out at least $2.5 billion for work on a single, four-story office building exposes him as an arrogant, privileged, bureaucrat who seems to think 'civil servant' means he's the one who gets served. Let them eat cake! The pricey makeover comes when the Fed is hemorrhaging money — a stunning $233 billion in losses in three years. That's thanks to high interest rates and the overhang from more than a decade of utterly unprecedented 'quantitative easing' intervention in the private economy, which has left the Fed with a huge balance sheet of junk 'assets' Powell keeps saying he's going to unload soon. Incidentally, The Wall Street Journal reports that the beehives (Italian beehives!) got added to the building's roof back in 2023. Maybe the chief never gets up there? At a time when the Fed's exercising entirely new powers, its chief can ill-afford to raise the question: If he doesn't know what happening on his roof, is he really on top of what's going on under it?
New York Post
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Jerome Powell accused of lying to Congress over $2.5B 'Palace of Versailles' HQ revamp
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is being accused of lying to Congress after he denied that a $2.5 billion revamp of the central bank's Washington headquarters will load the facility with lavish amenities — and some are demanding that he be punished, The Post has learned. Powell called The Post's exclusive report in April about the bloated renovation project — which led Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) to liken it to the 'Palace of Versailles' during a grilling by the Senate Banking Committee last week — 'misleading and inaccurate'. 'There's no VIP dining room, there's no new marble. There are no special elevators,' Powell insisted under questioning from the powerful panel on Wednesday. 'There are no new water features, there's no beehives, and there's no roof terrace gardens.' 6 Powell was accused by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) of making 'a number of factually inaccurate statements' during his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design But Powell — who is meanwhile facing heat from President Trump over a failure to slash interest rates — directly contradicted the project's own planning documents, which were signed off by government pen pushers in 2021 — and which haven't been revised since. 6 The costly vanity project was signed off by US government pen pushers in 2021 and costs are already overrunning. NCPC 'The private dining rooms on Level 4 (of the Fed's Eccles building) will be restored,' reads one excerpt from the filing with the National Capital Planning Commission. 'The Governors' private elevator will be extended to discharge at the dining suite level.' The documents also expressly mention 'vegetated roof terraces' that will welcome 'urban wildlife and pollinators' as well as new marble and water features. Andrew T. Levin — a professor of economics at Dartmouth College who served as an economist and advisor to the Fed's board from 1992 to 2012 — urged Congress to step in and punish Powell for lying to lawmakers. 'A top Fed official cannot be permitted to make false statements under oath at a congressional hearing. Such statements must be promptly corrected, and in egregious cases, subject to censure by the Senate,' Levin said. 6 Andrew T. Levin, a former Fed official, has argued for stronger Congressional oversight of the central bank. Dartmouth Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a majority member of the Senate Banking Committee, told The Post that Powell 'was clearly not prepared for his testimony, and should be embarrassed.' 'He made a number of factually inaccurate statements to the Committee regarding the Fed's plush private dining room and elevator, skylights, water features, and roof terrace,' Lummis said in a statement to The Post. 'This is typical of the mismanagement and 'don't bother me' attitude that Chair Powell has always shown.' A Fed spokesman declined to comment. 6 Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a majority member of the Senate Banking Committee, told The Post that Powell 'was clearly not prepared for his testimony, and should be embarrassed.' Getty Images The 72-year-old Powell also appeared to dismiss concerns that the revamp was being subsidized by American taxpayers in Wednesday's hearing, saying simply that 'the cost overruns are what they are.' The eye-watering price tag for the overhaul has already ballooned by 30% from an original estimate of $1.9 billion. Sen. Scott, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, branded the renovations as 'luxury upgrades that feel more like they belong in the Palace of Versailles.' 6 Sen. Tim Scott grilled Powell about the eye-wateringly expensive renovations after the Post's April expose on the Fed's DC HQ. AP After The Post broke the story about the Fed's reckless spending on the HQ upgrade, former Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk called the news 'an eyebrow raiser.' The Tesla titan, who has since left government, said DOGE should 'definitely' investigate how so much money came to be blown on the glorified vanity project. By comparison, JPMorgan's new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan — a luxe, 60-story tower at 270 Park Ave. designed by star architect Norman Foster — is set to cost an estimated $3 billion. 6 Planning documents posted online appear to directly contradict Chair Powell's testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. NCPC The revelations are controversial at a time when the Fed is struggling with mounting losses, which stand at a total of $233 billion from the past three years. Its interest costs surged and outstripped its earnings on bonds it owns when Powell hiked rates in trying to tame rampant inflation during the Biden administration. It sank into the red for the first time in its history, posting losses of $114.6 billion in 2023. Officials there insist that losing money in no way impacts their ability to operate and conduct monetary policy. When the Fed makes a profit, that money is then passed on to the US Treasury to become part of the federal government's budget. The losses are bundled together in what is known as the Fed's 'deferred asset' that it must pay down before money can be spent on other things, such as defense, education, and Medicare.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
White House, senators eye September deadline for crypto framework
A White House adviser and two key senators said Thursday they are now hoping to pass legislation laying out oversight of the crypto industry by the end of September, pushing back an earlier August deadline. Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) offered up the new timeline for market structure legislation at a fireside chat alongside Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Bo Hines, executive director of President Trump's Council of Advisors on Digital Assets. 'I want to set a timeline … of seeing the market structure completed before the end of September,' Scott said Thursday. 'I think that is a realistic expectation.' Lummis, who serves as chair of the Senate Banking subcommittee on digital assets, seemed prepared to meet the new deadline, saying they hope to put out draft legislation before Congress leaves for its August recess and hold a markup in September. Hines also confirmed the timeline, adding in a post on the social platform X, 'As stated today, we are committed to getting market structure done by the end of September. Period.' The Trump administration and GOP leaders had previously been aiming to pass both market structure and stablecoin legislation before the August recess. The market structure legislation seeks to split up oversight of the digital asset market between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, while stablecoin legislation aims to create a regulatory framework for the dollar-backed cryptocurrencies. After the Senate passed its stablecoin bill, known as the GENIUS Act, last week, Trump urged the House to quickly send the measure to his desk without major changes. However, his push runs counter to an effort by some in the industry and Congress who hoped to tie the stablecoin and market structure bills together amid concerns that a second lone crypto bill could lose momentum. 'I've been very clear that I think the president's mandate of moving GENIUS Act immediately to his desk is in the best interest of the American people,' Scott said Thursday. 'What they're concerned about is not getting market structure done fast enough,' he added. 'And I believe that we can do both in a very time-sensitive manner, and that is why I've committed to a deadline that will be reached.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
State Resolution Backs Federal Remedy For Politicized Debanking
Louisiana Senate, where lawmakers recently passed a resolution in support of federal efforts to end ... More political debanking. The problem of non-criminal 'debanking,' in which financial institutions deny service to a client for what are perceived to be political reasons, continues to garner the attention of lawmakers and the media. During a June 25 Senate Banking Committee hearing in which Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell fielded questions, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the committee chairman, thanked Powell for upholding his 'commitment to remove reputational risk from bank examination at the Fed.' That move, Senator Scott added, 'is a necessary first step toward ending the politicization of bank supervision.' Following that hearing, Senator Scott took to X to provide additional commentary on the matter. 'Debanking federally legal businesses is un-American, and I'm glad the @federalreserve followed through on their commitment to remove reputational risk from bank examination,' Scott posted, adding that he will 'continue pushing to end the politicization of bank supervision.' Recent developments suggest that additional state regulation is not the optimal remedy to politicized debanking when it is existing federal regulations that are the root cause. Furthermore, additional attention to the matter appears to be resulting in voluntary corrective action. 'Financial firms are warming to customers they once shunned under progressive pressure, addressing conservative states lamenting the lack of 'fair access' to banks, and more recently, trying to avoid the wrath of a president bent on settling scores,' noted a June 5 Semafor article on Bank of America's recent decision to again offer their services to CoreCivic, the second largest private operator of prisons and detention centers in the US. That article was published two days after Citigroup announced it would resume doing business with gun makers and that it would 'conduct employee training to root out any political bias.' On June 10, one week after that Citigroup announcement, the Louisiana Legislature passed the nation's first state resolution expressing support for efforts by the White House and Congress to end unjustified and politically motivated debanking. The language of that resolution acknowledges that banks are not to blame for unjustified debanking, explaining that 'the complexity of federal laws and regulations and the broad discretion of regulators have allowed federal regulators to weaponize banks for far too long.' The Louisiana resolution goes on to explain that 'if a regulator decides a bank is not adequately managing risk, does not have a good enough system in place to detect and deter financial crimes, or is closing accounts too slowly, the bank can face significant monetary penalties and costly lawsuits, and potentially criminal charges.' Texas lawmakers filed a similar resolution this year, but it did not pass before the conclusion of their biennial regular session in early June. Rather than seeking to thwart debanking through new state legislation or regulation, a resolution like the one passed in Louisiana that expresses support for a federal remedy is 'a better use of state legislators' time,' says James Erwin, director of innovation policy at Americans for Tax Reform. 'At the end of the day,' Erwin adds, 'this is a problem for federal regulators.' If lawmakers in other states want to join Louisiana in urging their congressional delegation to end political debanking, Senator Tim Scott has a bill, the FIRM Act, that they can get behind. The FIRM Act removes reputational risk from the jurisdiction of regulators. Erwin says the FIRM Act, if enacted, would 'stop overzealous regulators from leveraging their authority to unjustly harm legitimate industries and individuals.' Political Debanking, Like AI Regulation, Requires Federal Remedy After House approval of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and his colleagues are aiming to pass their version by July 4. Both the House-passed version of OBBBA and the Senate draft include provisions blocking states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI). Despite some GOP blowback, White House officials and other preemption backers argue that a regulatory framework for AI must be established on a national basis. Likewise, many of those seeking to end political debanking contend that only a federal level reform can remedy the matter. 'While stopping political debanking is critical, it's ultimately an interstate issue that Congress must lead on—which is why Senator Tim Scott's FIRM Act is so important to prevent federal regulators from weaponizing the financial system,' says Vance Ginn, president of Ginn Economic Consulting who previously served in the White House Office of Management and Budget. Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) recently announced he is calling the Texas House and Senate back for a special legislative session that will begin July 21. While the Texas resolution similar to the one recently signed by Governor Landry did not pass earlier this year, the special session presents opportunity to get it done this year. 'Louisiana got it right by passing a resolution defending financial freedom,' adds Ginn, who is also a staff economist at Americans for Tax Reform and who previously worked for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. 'Texas should have followed suit by passing Sen. Tan Parker's resolution, but since it died, Gov. Abbott should add it to the forthcoming July 21 special session. No American should lose access to banking because of their lawful business or personal beliefs.' A 50-state patchwork of variable and contradictory state regulations aimed at ending political debanking would come with adverse economic effects. That would also be the case for a 50-state patchwork of state AI regulations. That goes to explain, even if it's confusing to some in Congress, why Republicans who typically support pushing most decisions down to the states believe that, when it comes to regulation of AI and ending political debanking, the federal level is the proper venue for reform.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Leading Crypto Senator Sees End of Year as U.S. Legislation Target
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the wake of the U.S. Senate passing its first major crypto bill, one of the industry chief proponents there, Senator Cynthia Lummis, said the final step toward U.S. regulations for the crypto sector may take several more months to complete, potentially skipping past the August deadline set by President Donald Trump. The Senate's recent approval of stablecoin legislation is just one of many steps that potentially remain in turning two related efforts — also including the push toward new rules to govern U.S. digital asset markets — into U.S. law. When asked for a realistic timeline on this year's crypto efforts, Lummis told a Bitcoin Policy Institute audience in Washington, "I think before the end of this calendar year" for finishing all of the related legislation. The Wyoming Republican said she'd be "extremely disappointed" if that wasn't the case. "We're in a good place," she said at the Wednesday event. But the chairwoman of the Senate Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee also led a hearing on Tuesday to make a first foray into discussion of market structure legislation in that chamber, acknowledging it won't be easy. She hinted at the delicacy of the bipartisan wave that helped drive 18 Democratic votes (for 68 total) on the stablecoin bill last week, which she equated to "a tooth-pulling exercise." At her Tuesday hearing, a shortage of Democrats showed up to question witnesses, and she made some remarks at the end revealing her awareness the parties are approaching the effort differently. "I don't want to come up with a piece of legislation that the other side of the aisle feels they haven't had adequate input in, and so that is going to require maybe me to go out of my way to pursue additional discussions directly with the other side of the aisle," she said, questioning how the pursuit of crypto legislation became divisive. "It was very bipartisan then and now it seems not to be, and I don't understand what's changed, at least with regard to this topic." Some Democratic lawmakers have demanded that Congress needs to insist in these bills that senior government officials, including the president, not be allowed to directly engage in crypto businesses. While Republican lawmakers have generally shied away from openly discussing the criticism that Trump's involvement amounts to federal government corruption, Lummis nodded toward that view on Tuesday. "Maybe this is about concern that certain people that have family members in the administration are going to be advantaged in some way by what we're doing," she said. "I don't want that to be the case. I want everybody to be advantaged." She noted at the Wednesday event that there was — at one point of the stablecoin debate in the Senate — a setback with the Democratic supporters, who hit the brakes to criticize some of the bill's security provisions and also the potential conflicts of Trump's personal crypto interests. Those Democrats, including Senator Ruben Gallego, did come around later. But it's so far unclear how much those lawmakers will press for the market structure effort to ban government officials from crypto and whether that would be a deal breaker for Republicans. At this point, the U.S. House of Representatives has been in the lead on crypto market structure, having passed its Digital Asset Market Clarity Act from two committees on its way toward the House floor. But it now has to fix on a strategy for how it may or may not fold the stablecoin effort into that bill or pursue it separately. One option is to simply sign off on the Senate's Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which would send that piece to Trump more immediately, as he requested in a recent social-media post. The Senate remains the highest hurdle for U.S. legislation, so any House successes will run into the need to win wide Democratic support in the Senate.
