The Federal Reserve can and should change the way the terms of its 12 regional Fed bank presidents are structured to better insulate them from political pressure. Congress, through the Banking Act of 1935, established most of the elements of the Fed’s structure that enable the US central bank to make monetary policy decisions one step removed from partisan political control. The legislation removed the Treasury secretary and the comptroller of the currency from their ex officio positions on the Federal Reserve board of governors. The bill specified that the US president could only remove Fed board members “for ... (full story)