In one of four speaking appearances by high profile Fed officials on Wednesday, Donald Trump's favorite "politicized [7]" central planner Janet Yellen is set to testify before the House Financial Services Committee this morning.
The "vaunted" Fed chair will be discussing banking regulation which means that while we might not get a whole lot in the way of commentary on monetary policy they'll probably be all sorts of amusing soundbites about the TBTF cabal from its biggest champion - the FOMC.
Then again, given the scrutiny on the December meeting, one might expect that lawmakers, not wanting to miss a rare opportunity to grill someone who is generally above the law, will take a few pot shots on the economy and interest rates and maybe even on the now infamous "leak". Indeed, here's what Jeb Hensarling (committee chair and the ringleader of the leak investigation) had to say late last month about today's proceedings:
“Dodd-Frank’s massive expansion of the Federal Reserve’s authority has made the Fed America’s most powerful regulatory agency as well as our nation’s central bank. President Obama’s inability or unwillingness to fulfill this requirement of Dodd-Frank and appoint a Vice Chair for Supervision deprives Congress of an important opportunity to conduct effective oversight and hold the Fed accountable. That’s simply unacceptable. Until the president appoints someone, we will have Chair Yellen testify and answer our questions.”
(live feed)
A bit of color from WaPo [8] for what it's worth:
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will be in the hot seat on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, ostensibly to testify before the House Financial Services committee about the regulation and supervision of the nation’s biggest banks.
But looming over her appearance is the committee’s contentious probe into a three-year-old leak of sensitive economic information at the central bank. Late last week, the Fed handed over 3,796 pages of documents to lawmakers in response to a subpoena issued in May. A spokesman for the committee says it is reviewing the materials and raised questions about the the Fed’s handling of the breach.
“Our committee noted serious procedural problems with the Fed’s investigation,” spokesman Jeff Emerson said.
