The Federal Reserve’s early reappointment of its regional bank presidents took markets by surprise and eased concerns the central bank would soon lose its independence as Donald Trump continues demanding steeper rate cuts.
On Thursday, the Fed announced 11 out its 12 bank presidents were re-upped, leaving out the Atlanta Fed chief role as Raphael Bostic had announced previously that he’s stepping down.
“The reappointments for 11 of the reserve bank presidents takes a risk off the table that the president or his appointment of a new chairman might disrupt the structure and governance of the system going into 2026,” Robert Eisenbeis, who previously served as director of research at the Atlanta Fed, told Fortune via email.
Well, what's your solution? I don't think this is a terribly uncommon opinion, but I'm not exactly sure what the implication is. Eliminate all regulations? Eliminate government entirely, paving the way for an anarcho-capitalist utopia? I'm not sure I think it's a good idea to eliminate all public oversight when it comes to something as important as our national power grid. Someone has to look out for the interests of the public and the nation, and I'm not sure private, for-profit interests can be counted on for that.
That being said, I am totally in support of regulatory reform. Unnecessary and inconsistent regulations introduce all sorts of inefficiencies and costs. But all the more reason, in my opinion, for the Federal government to standardize, unify, and simplify regulations as much as possible across the country. Of course, that would require capable leadership, and we are woefully deficient there.
I don’t have one. I’m not an expert.
I’m a believer in “a la carte” regulation: some sectors should be wildly unrestricted. Some should be radically socialized. Some, in between. Some “hybridized.” The optimum thing just depends, and the key is finding experts to determine this and constantly testing that balance.
That makes me kind of technocratic, I guess.
But if I were to guess, for power infrastructure specifically, this seems like one of those “hybrid” situations? Power making startups should frictionlessly slot in; lest we miss experimental tech like, say, geothermal coal plant conversions, or small nuclear reactors. But at the same time, distribution and some larger projects really need government organization. And that’s kind of what we already have?
The problem seems to not be the amount of regulation, but the incentives. For instance, a lot of lobbying from Big Oil sneaks in. And there’s a lot of complacency with “good enough for now” infrastructure, tying into the public’s lack of interest in solving long-term problems until they blow up in their face.
Government and business planning is getting more tribalized, perverse, and “short term.” See: businesses shooting themselves in the foot, and each other, for quarterly boosts, politicians winning on “meme” issues and influencer-like engagement, regulatory capture becoming open and politicized. It’s rapidly worsening.
And honestly I don’t know how to fix that.