Bessent Calls for Internal Review of Federal Reserve’s Nonmonetary Policy Operations

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday called for an internal review of the Federal Reserve’s nonmonetary policy operations, saying that “mission creep and institutional growth” have taken the central bank into areas beyond its remit. Bessent wrote on social media that the Federal Reserve’s conduct of monetary policy is a “jewel box” that should be “walled off to preserve its independence,” describing that independence as a “cornerstone of continued U.S. economic growth and stability.” That autonomy is “threatened by persistent mandate creep into areas beyond its core mission, provoking justifiable criticism that unnecessarily casts a cloud over the Fed’s valuable independence on monetary policy,” he wrote on X....