“And so the gangster tactics migrate into the Fed.

Expensive renovation you got going on there, Chairman Powell. A lot of taxpayer money at issue. And you made that building pretty fancy, didn’t you? You gave some congressional testimony about it too. And spoken words in a congressional hearing—there are so many ways to slip up and get a fact wrong. And you know, even if you don’t slip up, words can be interpreted as erroneous, anyway. And you never know what an investigation is going to find about your intent, do you? And juries just don’t love people who build themselves fancy offices with taxpayer money, do they? And even if you never face charges, an investigation is a long and ugly process. The kind of thing that ruins an economist’s reputation. Kind of thing that sucks up a lot of time and ends up high up in a man’s obituary. That would be a shame.

And you know, Mr. Powell, that all you have to do to make this go away is lower interest rates.

Extortion is a matter of habit. Like lying. Do it a few times, and it becomes easier. Do it a few more times, and it becomes a way of life.

And thus does criminal investigation become an instrument of monetary policy.

Or perhaps we should say thus does criminal investigation become also an instrument of monetary policy.”