President Donald Trump's efforts to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook could jeopardize the central bank's independence, according to longtime investor Rebecca Patterson.

"We shouldn't ignore this at all. This is a big deal what's going on," the former Bridgewater Associates chief investment strategist told CNBC's " Fast Money " this week.

Patterson, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has spent more than two decades analyzing how politics and policy shape global markets. She cautions that politicizing the Fed could erode its legitimacy and have long-term economic consequences.

Drawing from her economics research on countries that have lost institutional integrity, Patterson notes a familiar pattern: weaker stock market performances, higher inflation and

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