Elizabeth Warren blasts Jerome Powell for taking ‘flamethrower’ to bank regulations

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, has increased her criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell by accusing him of “taking a flamethrower” to bank regulations.

Warren has urged Congress and regulators to strengthen oversight of the banking industry following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. She recently claimed that Powell’s contributions led to the bank’s failure and urged him to recuse himself from an internal review of the collapse.

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Warren cited Powell’s efforts to weaken bank regulations, which Trump promised to do before being elected president. She said that Powell continued with this effort, “literally took a flamethrower to these regulations in order to make them less and less effective.” Warren also grilled Powell over the Fed’s decision to increase interest rates in a bid to tamp down inflation, which she feared would fuel unemployment.

Warren has been a vocal critic of Powell and opposed both his initial appointment in 2018 and his reappointment by President Joe Biden in 2021. She highlighted the need for accountability of regulators and executives of large financial institutions in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Dodd-Frank Act regulations, which ease stress test requirements for smaller and midsized banks, are structures that Warren is keen on reviving, having warned of the effects of the 2018 rollback on these regulations.

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Warren also criticized Powell’s management of the banking industry and inflation, but stopped short of calling for Biden to fire him when asked by NBC.

“I think he’s failing in both jobs. Both as the oversight manager of these big banks, which is his job, and also what he’s doing with inflation,” Warren told NBC’s Meet the Press. “I don’t think he should be Chairman of the Federal Reserve I have said it as publicly as I know how.”