Herein is the flaw in the “checks and balances” of modern America; the ability to set interest rates effectively confers the U.S. Fed ie unelected bankers as kingmakers in a capitalist democracy, and this model has been exported to other states as it confers power to the mercantilist elites of the west who hold voting power within these organisations. In Australia, this model is mirrored in the Reserve Bank being seperate from the federal government.
What Trump appears to be doing is to go for Caesarism where the ability to set interest rates would be up to the President, or effectively emperor trump.
This is correct but it's leaving something unsaid:
The reason why the power to set interest rate lies in Federal Reserve is precisely because when the states joined together to form the Union they fought over this and some did not want this power in the hands of the Federal Government. The people who wanted federal government to have this power didn't just take it lying down, instead in early US history there used to be a First Bank of United States and then a Second Bank of United States, in those periods US did have a reserve bank that answers to the government and therefore the government did have direct power over interest rate. But eventually the people that wanted the other way around won out and the charter for Second Bank of United States was not renewed, and the situation remains that way till now.
Who are the people who doesn't want the Federal Government to have this power? The same people who via influence and money could control this power - the Old Money. I would arguing the Old Money having this power instead of US government is not necessarily better for the ordinary American. Old Money only care about their class not everyone. And as we see with just about every other country in the world the government having this power doesn't lead to disasters until the government gets desperate and starts printing money to plug some hole and causes hyperinflation. Sure that's what Trump wants to do, but that's just Trump being a bad president, that's not to say the federal government having that power is inherently a bad thing.
Trump is not Old Money, Trump is new money, that's why there's that slight tinge of working class revolution when Trump does these things and why memes like "MAGA Maoism" has legs. But that's a really bold thing that he's trying to do upsetting the Old Money like that, could be a 6.5mm Carcano round with his name on it if he keeps this up.
Can you imagine if China worked the way US does and the power to print money lies not with PBoC (and therefore CPC) but in the hands of people like Jack Ma, Zhang Yiming, Lei Jun, the Nongfu Spring water guy etc? One shudders at the thought. Jack Ma did tried to take China in that direction with his Ant Group thing, hence demonstrating the need for a country's government to every now and then threaten to hang Old Money from lamp posts to keep them inline and not turn your country into another United States.
