Just a week ago we were surprised to find that current Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard gave $750 in three contributions to Clinton’s campaign between November and January, according to Federal Election Commission records.
And while Fed officials sometimes identify with either major political party, as Bloomberg correctly notes, "donations to a presidential candidate by a senior policy maker are unusual, particularly at a time when the central bank is trying to guard its independence from politics. The Fed’s authority has been criticized during the campaign, and both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned decisions about regulation and monetary policy."
And here is the Republican soundbite for when the Trump campaign shifts to important things like the Fed:
At a time when Federal Reserve officials are making the case that monetary policy needs to be non-partisan and independent, a sitting governor has given money to Hillary Clinton.
Hardly a glowing endorsement for the apoliticalness, or for that matter intelligence, of the Fed and as Bloomberg's Craig Torres writes, Brainard’s donations "could provide fuel for Republican narratives about the proximity of the Fed and the board to the Obama administration," said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is writing a book about politics and the central bank.
But it is not a "one-off" - very far from it...
Since the 2004 Presidential election, Bloomberg reports that individuals listing the Fed as their employer have made legally capped donations totaling $436,555 to federal candidates, parties and partisan political action committees. Of that, $343,916, or 79 percent, went to Democrats.
And Zero went to Donald Trump...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-14/343916-reasons-why-fed-anything-independent
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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