A federal judge rejected Justice Department subpoenas seeking records from the Federal Reserve Board related to its headquarters renovations and Chair Jerome Powell's comments to Congress. The judge said the government had no evidence to justify the subpoenas and they reflected an "improper motive" of retaliating against Powell over policy differences. The US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said they would appeal the decision, which was welcomed by a Republican senator who called the investigation "a failed attack on Fed independence". Bloomberg's Elliot Stein joins to discuss.
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, a City University of New York professor, reacts to a federal judge's ruling that blocks a federal investigation of Fed Chair Powell. Krugman says President Trump and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro are "harassing" Powell. Krugman says the independence of the Fed is on the line.
The US said it had stepped up strikes on Iran to unprecedented levels as both sides in the war threatened to escalate a conflict hitting its two-week mark. The US-Israeli alliance has hit around 15,000 targets since the war began, and the Pentagon has sent a Marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East. Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the Islamic Republic would seek to ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, and warned Tehran would look to open other fronts in the war if the US and Israeli attacks continue. Cliff Young, Ipsos US Public Affairs Chair, Professor at Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service join to discuss the voters point of view on the conflict.
Brian Carbaugh spent years living and traveling abroad in a variety of alias personas as a CIA officer. Now he's fronting investor meetings and raising capital as CEO of Andesite, a Virginia-based data analytics startup, one of several recently retired spies taking their field experience from the CIA to the C-suite. Former CIA officer Brian Carbaugh, co-founder of the data analytics startup Andesite joined to discuss on Balance of Power.