Last August, President Trump made the unprecedented choice of moving to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook. The administration claimed she was being terminated with cause, citing an ongoing investigation in alleged mortgage fraud committed by Cook. The legal battle between Cook and the administration has been tangled in the courts for the last year, eventually reaching the Supreme Court. This June, in a 5-4 decision, the court ruled in favor of Cook. However at the same time, in a different case, the court allowed the President to fire individual members of the FTC, undermining its role as quasi-independent body not beholden to the executive branch. On this episode we speak with Columbia Law School's Lev Menand and Nathan Tankus, president of Notes on the Crises. The two of them lay out the consequences of these two decisions and they dig into the generations-long legal history, starting with Alexander Hamilton, that explains how we got here. Chapters: 00:00:00 - Supreme Court Decision Affects Agency Independence 00:05:04 - Humphrey's Executor Background 00:09:01 - Legal Framework Analysis 00:10:22 - Fed's Special Status in Economics 00:14:02 - Post-Volcker Academic Literature 00:15:52 - Historical Development of Independent Commissions 00:19:21 - Economic Motivations vs. Other Considerations 00:21:26 - Court's Reasoning: History and Tradition Test 00:24:51 - Executive Branch Maximalism 00:31:35 - Fed's Dual Nature 00:34:18 - Fed's Unique Funding Structure 00:36:53 - Monetary Policy as Fiscal Policy Argument 00:40:07 - Constitutional Separation of Powers 00:42:21 - New Deal Compact Under Attack 00:45:11 - Fed's Precarious Future 00:48:26 - Removal Protections Analysis 00:50:21 - Financial Stability vs. Legal Doctrine 00:54:18 - Legitimacy and Outcomes 00:56:17 - Executive Fiscal Policy and Debt Ceiling 00:58:54 - Rule of Law Concerns Watch Bloomberg Vodcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0MS0Tqk_zQl1LVVTdWuH2Di Watch more Odd Lots episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0OJbRzA6nWybYiThLJd_ouz Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway analyze the weird patterns, the complex issues and the newest market crazes. Join the conversation every Monday and Thursday for interviews with the most interesting minds in finance, economics and markets. Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots Subscribe to Bloomberg Podcasts: https://bit.ly/BloombergPodcasts Check out more Odd Lots: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0MuA6M0zkZyy-99-qc87wKV Get the Odd Lots newsletter: https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/oddlots And for all things Odd Lots, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/oddlots #Investing #Markets #Finance #Bloomberg #Podcast #OddLots Visit us: https://www.bloomberg.com/podcasts For coverage on news, markets and more: http://www.bloomberg.com/video Visit our other YouTube channels: Bloomberg Television: https://www.youtube.com/@markets Bloomberg Originals: https://www.youtube.com/bloomberg