Don’t martyr Jerome Powell. He was a terrible Fed chairman, but he’s not a criminal. Over his tenure, he consistently missed the Fed’s inflation targets with the worst price hikes in 40 years. He was the most political Fed chairman in memory.
Raising rates to stop President Trump’s tax cut boom back in the first term, lowering rates to reelect Vice President Harris and the Democrats in the last election — totally political.
A whole bunch of his Fed cronies face accusations of insider trading, or breaches of ethics, or mortgage fraud, but he never did anything about it. He jumped on the socialist bandwagon of climate change, woke, DEI, no loans to fossil fuel companies, everything wrong.
In other words, a real meathead, but I don’t think he’s a criminal. He probably did testify wrongly about the Fed’s rebuilding plans before Congress, but Mr. Trump will not be able to get his new chairman through the Senate until he withdraws Mr. Powell’s criminal indictment. It’s not going to happen.
Mr. Trump himself said last night, in a quick interview with NBC News, that “I don’t know anything about it, but he’s certainly not very good at the Fed And he’s not very good at building buildings.”
The president went on to say, “no, I wouldn’t even think of doing it that way. What should pressure him is the fact that rates are far too high. That’s the only pressure he’s got.”
Last summer, Mr. Trump paid an unusual visit to Mr. Powell and the Fed. And made sure to criticize the Fed’s cost overruns for their renovated buildings, which are estimated to run at least $700 billion over budget.
At the time, Mr. Trump declined to raise the issue of criminal indictments or grand jury subpoenas. So who knows which little gremlin from the U.S. Attorney’s office at Washington, D.C., or the main Justice Department, decided to issue these subpoenas. Who knows? Everybody’s trying to play dumb, saying “I didn’t do it, I didn’t know about it.”
Here’s the thing, much more importantly: Republican banking committee senators like Thom Tillis and others won’t confirm a new Fed chairman until the subpoenas are quashed. So it’s an exercise in futility.
Yet all this screaming and yelling about ending Fed independence is so totally overbaked. There’s no awful market reaction today. The 10-year Treasury auction went great, 4.17 percent. It was below the when-issued 4.18 percent. Hat tip to my pal Peter Boockvar for that information.
Meanwhile, the S&P and the Dow hit all time highs. So nobody seems really to be caring about this story. Here’s what they care about. The economy is growing at 5 percent or better.
Maybe it’s going to hit 6 percent or 7 percent in the next year from Trump tax cuts and deregulation and “drill, baby, drill,” with all these new economic incentives and trillions of dollars coming in from around the world. There’s also an unbelievable 4 percent or more productivity growth.
Plus, last year, 2.4 million household jobs were created, unreported in the press — 2.4 million. Plus, take-home pay adjusted for inflation, rising for the first time in years. Plus, record corporate profits.
Plus, negative CPI prints coming from the positive oil shock. This has made the US the hottest economy in the world. That’s the key point right now. Not the cost of an old Fed elevator.
Lawrence Kudlow is a Fox News Media contributor and host of both “Kudlow” on weekdays and the nationally syndicated “Larry Kudlow Show” each Saturday. This column is adapted from his monologues on “Kudlow.”
👉 Quick Reads
I. Greenland At A Glance
Home to just 57,000 people but covering more than 2 million square kilometers, Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark that controls vast Arctic territory while Denmark retains defense and foreign policy, placing the island at the center of growing geopolitical competition.
II. Greenland’s Mineral Wealth Is Real, But Limited
Greenland is believed to hold large rare-earth, lithium, graphite, and uranium resources, yet only two mines are currently operating and most deposits remain costly and difficult to recover, tempering expectations that the island could quickly become a major global minerals supplier.
III. Iran’s Currency Is Now Practically Worthless
The Iranian rial has fallen so far that exchange trackers now round it to $0.00 per rial, a stark visual reminder of how inflation and economic isolation have erased the currency’s real value for ordinary citizens.
The TIPP Stack
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3. The Task That Lies Ahead In Venezuela—Armstrong Williams, The Daily Signal
4. Was Trump’s Maduro Operation Illegal? Here’s What International Law Says—Eugene Kontorovich, The Daily Signal
5. Europe Needs To Calm Down About Greenland—Jarrett Stepman, The Daily Signal
6. EU Leaders Appear More Scared Of Trump Than Apocalypse That Will Engulf The Earth In Flames—John Loftus, Daily Caller News Foundation
7. As Protests And Casualties Mount In Iran, What Are Trump’s Options For Action?—Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal
8. Trump Provides Solution To Housing Crisis—Peter St. Onge & EJ Antoni, The Daily Signal
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10. Winter Strikes Kiev—Moon of Alabama, The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
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20. Is Congress Returning To ‘Regular Order’ In Funding?—George Caldwell, The Daily Signal
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22. US Military Seizes Fifth Tanker Amid Crackdown On Venezuelan Oil—Mark Tanos, Daily Caller News Foundation
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24. Environmentalism Is Anti-Humanism—Joshua Mawhorter, Mises Wire
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28. Maduro And Mamdani: Two Collectivists Check Into Public Housing—Mike Gonzalez, The Daily Signal
29. Iran’s Capital In Flames As Leader Blames Trump For Fiery Protests—Melissa O'Rourke, Daily Caller News Foundation
30. Cynicism Redeemed: My 2025 Epigrams—James Bovard, Mises Wire
31. Decentralize The Skies: A Swift Regional Model To Fix India’s Aviation Mess—Shashank Shukla, Mises Wire
32. Venezuelan Warns His Country ‘Isn’t Free Yet’— Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal
33. Tragedy And Reality— Erick Erickson, The Daily Signal
34. Leftist Group Dodges Accountability For ‘Hate Group’ Accusation After Judge Blocks Discovery—Tyler O'Neil, The Daily Signal
35. America Needs More Masculinity—Victor Joecks, The Daily Signal
36. How To Help Small Businesses, Hurt Mamdani All At Once—Miles Pollard & Nicole Huyer, The Daily Signal
From TIPP Insights News Editor
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40. Gold Hits Record $4,600 As Fed Uncertainty And Global Tensions Rise
41. Japanese Companies Raise Alarm Over China’s Grip On Rare Earth Supplies
42. Supreme Court Declines Review Of $2.4B Boy Scouts Deal
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45. Ofcom Investigates X After Grok AI Deepfake Reports
46. Markets React As Trump Escalates Pressure On Fed Chair
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📊 Market Mood — Tuesday, January 13, 2026
🟩 Futures Drift Lower Ahead of CPI
U.S. futures edge down as traders brace for today’s key inflation print and the opening of bank earnings season.
🟧 Powell Probe Sparks Backlash
The White House faces bipartisan criticism over the DOJ investigation into Fed Chair Powell, reviving fears about central-bank independence.
🟦 Inflation Test for the Fed
December CPI is expected to hold at 2.7% YoY, but risks skew hotter, complicating the Fed’s path for further rate cuts.
🟪 JPMorgan Kicks Off Earnings
Results from JPMorgan today, followed by other major lenders this week, will set the tone for early-2026 markets.
🟫 Oil Rallies on Iran Unrest
Crude extends gains as intensifying protests in Iran raise the specter of fresh supply disruptions.
🗓️ Key Economic Events — Tuesday, January 13, 2026
🟧 8:30 AM ET — U.S. CPI Inflation Report (Dec)
Includes Headline CPI, Core CPI (YoY & MoM). The most important inflation release of the month and a major driver of Fed rate expectations.
🟦 Earnings Watch — JPMorgan Chase
The largest U.S. bank reports today, officially kicking off the Q4 earnings season and shaping sentiment across the financial sector.
editor-tippinsights@technometrica.com
