New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sat down with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo this week, where he condemned U.S. monetary policy under the Obama administration. Christie said the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy has left America with “nothing in the toolbox” in case of another U.S. recession, and criticized the President for pressuring the Fed to continue it. He also called for an audit of the Federal Reserve to restore the trust that has been strained after “several rounds of Quantitative Easing.”
You can watch the interview below (Christie’s Fed comments start around 3:50):
CHRISTIE: What I think we’re going to see coming out of this is the Fed, who has kept interest rates at zero, now have nothing in the toolbox in case we do go into recession. Where are we going to go from here? They should have been raising rates appropriately before, now they’ve got no tools left in the toolbox. We could face a real big problem and soon.
BARTIROMO: You’re not the first person to criticize the Federal Reserve. Let’s say you do become President of this great country…what do you do with the Federal Reserve?
CHRISTIE: Well, you want the Federal Reserve to be independent, and you want them to make decisions not based on politics, but upon sound monetary policy.
BARTIROMO: So can you affect that at President?
CHRISTIE: Well you affect it by the people you appoint, absolutely. And you try to affect it by your rhetoric. You don’t wind up trying to send signals to the Fed, you know, winking at them and saying “hey, maybe you should do this, and do that.” Because you should let them control monetary policy in the country. Also the Fed should be audited to make sure that everybody has a sense of comfort that we’re doing what we need to do, especially after a number of rounds of quantitative easing.
Nick Arnold is a researcher for the American Principles Project.
