Lisa Cook is wrong

Uncharacteristically for him, Donald Trump is being too modest in asserting his power over the Federal Reserve. He’s fired Lisa Cook “for cause,” citing a clearly pretextual alleged mortgage infraction, when as a constitutional matter, he should be able to fire her, or Chairman Jerome Powell, for any reason he deems appropriate.

The independence of the Federal Reserve largely rests on its status as a constitutional anomaly, exercising executive authority without being subject to the same rules as the rest of the executive branch. There are good policy reasons for this — an independent central bank promotes monetary stability — but the Fed has been granted, in effect, an exemption from our constitutional order for prudential reasons.

The Fed itself isn’t in on the joke. Lisa Cook thinks s