Members of the Federal Open Market Committee who guide the Fed. They are the direct representatives of finance capital.

The people at the top of the Federal Reserve Bank, the “Fed”, are the direct representatives of finance capital in the United States. Therefore, what they are saying behind the scenes is extremely important. From time to time, I write fanciful articles imagining I’m overhearing a conversation from those in power. This is not one of these. This is an actual report on what I am told by somebody who is hearing indirectly what those who control Fed policy are saying. Her reports are reliable and credible. Here is what she reports:

Israel
They are very concerned that those under 30 do not support Israel. I’ve reported before on the article in Haaretz entitled “Israel has lost American’s universities. It may eventually lose the White House.” This is the same recognition from the top representatives of US finance capital. Nor is US support for Israel a “mistake”. As Biden has repeatedly said, “if Israel didn’t exist we’d have to invent it.” That’s because Israel is the only truly reliable ally for US capitalism in that all-important region, which is center of world oil production.

Biden has tried and tried to restrain Israel, but his problem is the rise of the far right, including outright fascists, in Israel and the aren’t going for it. So this is driving the turn against Israel among the younger generation in the US.

The Fed formally plays no role at all in U.S. foreign policy. That makes the concern of the Fed tops all the more significant. It shows that finance capital is extremely worried.

Monetary policy
There are two issues regarding a potential President Trump monetary policy:

First is the reports that Trump would like to take direct personal control over the Fed. Many past presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, have criticized the Fed when it raised interest rates. Partly that is just performative and partly it’s because raising interest rates hurts any president because it will tend to increase unemployment. But until now, no president has ever actually tried to take over Fed policy. What I am told is that the tops at the Fed simply don’t take that seriously. They believe that congress would stop him.

Second is the issue of tariffs. Significantly raising tariffs is inflationary. More than anything else, a central task of the Fed is to keep inflation under control. Increased inflation forces the Fed to raise interest rates. The tops at the Fed also aren’t taking that threat by Trump (to increase tariffs) seriously either.

Some conclusions
The United States in 2024 is not Germany in the 1920s and ‘30s, MAGA is not the Nazi Party and therefore Trump is not Hitler. But there are still some similarities. Therefore, looking at how Hitler came to power is important. At the top what happened was that the top representatives of the German capitalist class colluded in putting Hitler into power as the chancellor. They thought that once in office he would burn himself out. They vastly misunderstood what was happening in Germany and underestimated what Hitler represented. They overestimated their own power.

They NATO nations.
They play a central role in US capitalism’s foreign policy. Trump was restrained from exiting that alliance. If he gets back in, it is doubtful he will be so restrained this time.

It seems something similar is happening among the top representatives of finance capital. During Trump’s last term in office, the tops were able to more or less restrain him. “His” generals held him back from declaring martial law and sending the troops into the streets. They prevented him from breaking from their most important alliance – NATO. Those generals did the same with some of Trump’s crazier ideas such as invading Venezuela. That is what the whole theme of keeping the “grown-ups in the room” was all about. “So, how bad could it be this time?” is their thinking.

In fact, many on the left have the same sort of thinking. “Well, it was pretty bad under Trump, but we all survived, and we’ll survive again.” We may survive, although with Trump developing Alzheimers – which is making him even more aggressive – the possibility that he could call for a nuclear strike somewhere is real. (That makes even more dangerous the claim of Jill Stein and Cornel West that it is Biden, not Trump, who represents the threat of nulear war.) But even before now, much of the left was unwilling and/or unable to face up to the reality that something fundamental had changed in US politics, that Trump and the Republican Party he has taken over is different from previous Republican presidents. That just like populist dictators and would-be populist dictators around the world, past and present, Trump & co. are not under the control of the capitalist class.

We had better organize now.

See our Message to never Biden voters for some thoughts on organizing.

Members of the Federal Open Market Committee who guide the Fed. They are the direct representatives of finance capital.