Donald Trump’s attack on the Fed is part of his authoritarian attempt to capture the administrative state. Economist Mona Ali spoke to Jacobin about the stakes of the current clash between Trump and Lisa Cook and what a democratized Fed could look like.

Since taking office in January, Donald Trump has had the Federal Reserve in his sights. He has described its governor, Jerome Powell, as a “numbskull,” “major loser,” and “stubborn mule” who “makes it hard for people to buy houses.” Part of reason for these insults is that the president likes interest rates to be low, and Powell has, thus far, been unwilling to oblige. Although the governor has signaled that a rate cut is on the cards for next month, by sticking to his guns for so long he has been following the principle of central bank in

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