Donald Trump is obsessed with loyalty and shows frequent disdain for US institutions like the judiciary and a free press, so it fits that he would flout a basic tenet of economic policy — Federal Reserve independence. That approach, which comes with potentially damaging ramifications for the economy if the president surrounds himself with monetary yes-men, has been confirmed by a top Republican economist who was on Trump's list of finalists for the job of Fed Chair. The role went to Jerome Powell, then a sitting Fed governor former Carlyle Group executive. But former Fed governor and Hoover Institution economist ... (full story)