| This morning, the Justice Department opened up a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, which is likely to cause even more rancor between the White House and the central bank. US economy reporter Matthew Boesler takes a look at the big picture. Plus: A corporate spending spree on children and another possible use for GLP-1 drugs. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. The Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated September policy meeting is less than two weeks away, and at this point, it’s not entirely clear who all will be in attendance. Fed Governor Lisa Cook, whom President Donald Trump is trying to fire, is locked in a legal battle with the administration. Whether she can stay in her post while it plays out in court likely won’t be decided before the end of the week. Meanwhile, Republicans are aiming to confirm Stephen Miran, the White House economist whom Trump nominated to temporarily fill a separate position at the Fed, in time to take part in the Sept. 16-17 interest-rate decision. Miran’s testimony on Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee quickly became explosive as Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed him on whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election and whether he agreed with Trump’s claims that the Bureau of Labor Statistics rigged labor-market data to make the president look bad.  Miran, during his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing in Washington on Thursday. Photographer: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg Regardless of how the next few days play out on either of those fronts, it’s hard to imagine the conversation around the table at the Eccles Building. Fed officials love to say politics doesn’t come up in their meetings, where they are always squarely focused on the best course of action for the American people based on an objective analysis of the latest economic data. But consider this: Aside from the drama unfolding around Cook in federal court and Miran on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is also reportedly ramping up interviews with candidates to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term at the helm of the central bank ends in May. Of the 11 candidates said to be on Bessent’s list, four—Fed vice chairs Philip Jefferson and Michelle Bowman, Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan—are already on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. That means come the September meeting, if a judge rules in Cook’s favor and Miran makes it through the Senate, at least six people around the FOMC table may be more or less directly engaged with the administration to varying degrees. It’s an extraordinary setup given the backdrop, in which the whole debate over what to do with interest rates essentially hinges on how much inflation Trump’s tariff policies will create this year. Waller, whom Trump appointed to the Fed in his first term, said last week that he would likely support a quarter-point rate cut, with the caveat that bad numbers in a monthly jobs report due Friday could tilt him toward arguing for a bigger reduction. Miran may already be planning to make the case for a half-point move, in line with what Trump has been arguing for some time. On the other side, there are Fed officials—notably, presidents of regional reserve banks absent from the list of names the administration is considering for the top job—who have questioned the need for a rate cut at all, given the inflation risk. Trump’s move to fire Cook last week reportedly sparked a round of worried phone calls between the reserve bank chiefs as a once unthinkable scenario of a Trump-appointed majority on the Fed’s Board of Governors, which could in turn remove the regional officials from their positions, suddenly came into view. Investors don’t seem too perturbed about the prospects for increased politicization of US monetary policy, even as it throws into doubt what conventional wisdom has always held up as the bedrock of global financial stability. They could be betting on Cook’s legal team to prevail, a scenario in which the Fed’s independence would live to fight another day. But either way, Trump will have put an absolutely indelible stamp on at least one FOMC meeting, in September 2025. Follow live: Miran’s Senate confirmation hearing Related: Trump’s Housing Chief Wants to Build, But With What? | 
