Powell Should Resign to Safeguard Fed Independence

Show from 07/18/25 Host Jeremy Schwartz and Professor Siegel open with a deep dive into the tense dynamics between President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell, with Professor Siegel controversially suggesting Powell should resign to maintain the Fed’s independence. Siegel argues Powell faces only downside if economic conditions worsen, becoming a convenient scapegoat for Trump's economic policies. (23:13) Jeremy and the WisdomTree macro team, including Sam Rines, Jeff Weniger, and Chris Gannatti, then analyze the week's geopolitical developments, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, European defense spending trends, implications of Trump's tariffs, and recent earnings from key companies like Netflix, Pepsi, Johnson & Johnson, and Nvidia. Guest: Samuel Rines is a Macro Strategist at WisdomTree, where he extends the firm's custom model portfolio management capabilities. Before joining WisdomTree in 2024, he was the Managing Director at CORBU, LLC, leading the PolyMacro advisory product. Christopher Gannatti began at WisdomTree as a Research Analyst in December 2010, working directly with Jeremy Schwartz, CFA®, Director of Research. In January of 2014, he was promoted to Associate Director of Research where he was responsible to lead different groups of analysts and strategists within the broader Research team at WisdomTree. In February of 2018, Christopher was promoted to Head of Research, Europe, where he was based out of WisdomTree’s London office and was responsible for the full WisdomTree research effort within the European market, as well as supporting the UCITs platform globally. In November 2021, Christopher was promoted to Global Head of Research, now responsible for numerous communications on investment strategy globally, particularly in the thematic equity space. Jeff Weniger, CFA serves as Head of Equity Strategy at WisdomTree. In his role, Weniger helps to formulate the firm’s stock market outlook by assessing macro and fundamental trends. Prior to joining WisdomTree, he was Director, Senior Strategist at BMO, where he worked in the office of the CIO from 2006 to 2017. He served on the firm’s Asset Allocation Committee and co-managed the firm’s ETF model portfolios for both the U.S. and Canada. In 2013, at the age of 32, Jeff was chosen as the youngest member of BMO’s Global Investment Forum, which collected the firm’s top global strategists to formulate the firm’s official long-term outlook for investment trends and markets. Follow Sam Rines on X: https://x.com/SamuelRines Follow Chri Gannatti on X: https://x.com/cgannatti?lang=en Follow Jeff Weniger on X: https://x.com/JeffWeniger Wisdom Tree: https://www.wisdomtree.com/investments