It's probably safe to say that almost no one following the news believes that Donald Trump has a solid, defensible reason to fire Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, as he purported to do Monday, notwithstanding his assertion that she is guilty of "potentially criminal conduct."

It's not only that the charge she falsified information on mortgage applications is unproven, or that even on their face the accusations are thinner than onionskin paper.

It's that Trump has telegraphed his true objective loud and clear virtually from the inception of his current term: to destroy the Fed's independence so he can force it to act in accordance with what he sees as his immediate political advantage, chiefly by cutting interest rates at a time when that would be economically irrational.

He has

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