Margaret Brennan Blames CDC Critics For Shooting (And Other Face The Nation Questions)
Here are all the questions Margaret Brennan asked her Republican and Democrat guests on Sunday’s 'Face The Nation.'Here are all the questions Margaret Brennan asked her Republican and Democrat guests on Sunday’s 'Face The Nation.'Fed Gov. Lisa Cook’s Ann Arbor pad is allegedly a rental too
Lisa Cook’s financial house is on fire. Naturally, there is a Michigan angle to the story. Because there’s always a Michigan angle to the story.
Cook, a governor with the Federal Reserve Bank, has a bank loan on a “secondary” home in Massachusetts, which the Trump administration alleges she rents out full-time. A judge might call that mortgage fraud.
There cannot be two sets of rules: one for the elites who scam their way into favorable financial terms and another for the rest of us.
Cook also owns a condo in Atlanta, which she claims is her primary residence on banking and government documents. The Trump administration alleges there is evidence that she rents that one out, too. And that also could be mortgage fraud.
But Cook also has a third home in Ann Arbor, which she also lists as her primary residence on banking and government papers. Lisa must be living in Ann Arbor in the tidy brick house with a columned portico on Jackson Avenue, right?
- YouTube
I stopped by the house last week. The glass in the storm door was filthy with neglect. A metal lockbox — the kind used by realtors — hung on the door knob. From the porch, I could see a figure sitting at the dining room table. When I knocked, the door slightly cracked open, only to reveal a white man partially visible behind the filthy glass.
“I’m a reporter,” I told the figure, who did not undo the chain. “I was wondering if Lisa Cook lives here. Or do you rent?”
“No, we’re just renters here.” He made it clear he didn’t feel comfortable with a reporter on the deteriorating porch. “You’ll have to talk to the owner.”
“OK,” I said. “Is it you just living here?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Just renting?” I asked again.
“No comment.”
“I’m sorry?”
It was difficult to hear. The traffic was crackling like an old transistor radio. There was a bus stop nearby.
“You’ll have to talk to the owner of the house.”
And with that, the interview was over. The chain rattled. The door closed, and someone pulled the curtains tight.
It’s hard to believe Cook got confused over her mortgage paperwork. Cook is a financial sophisticate, a member of the board of governors of the world’s most powerful central bank. A bank that sets interest rates that influence the cost of financing a home, mind you.
All three mortgages were taken out by Cook in 2021, all within a timespan of two months, three weeks, and four days. In her 2025 government ethics filings, Cook claimed two of the properties are her primary residences and the Massachusetts dwelling is an income property.
That’s cheating. Trump fired her last week for “cause,” and two criminal referrals against Cook have been referred to the Department of Justice. For her part, Cook is suing over her firing.
Trump is accused of attacking a prominent black woman who refuses to lower interest rates as Trump has demanded.
Perhaps.
As far as my motivations go, I simply try to hold the powerful to account. When it comes to questions of residency and real estate, you may have seen me on the porches of two Detroit mayors, a current mayoral candidate, a county executive, a county commissioner, a supreme court justice, a circuit court judge, a district court judge, a member of Congress, a fire commissioner, a prominent minister, and a major political party treasurer, just to name but a dozen. These people were black, white, male, and female. Doesn’t matter to me.
We cannot have two sets of rules: one for the elites who scam their way into favorable financial terms and another for the rest of us who endure audits, foreclosures, and repossession.
Cook has three basic questions to answer:
- Was she renting the properties when she was supposed to be sleeping at them?
- Did she claim rental income on her tax forms?
- And where does she actually live?
Because it sure the heck ain’t Ann Arbor.
Editor's note: A version of article appeared originally in the Michigan Enjoyer.
Trump Was Right To Fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, And Here’s Why
In public service, integrity is judged in real time, not deferred until a jury renders a verdict.Trump fires Biden Fed governor for possible 'criminal conduct' — but Lisa Cook is desperate to cling to power
President Donald Trump informed Lisa Cook on Monday that her time on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has come to an end.
The Biden-nominated governor did not handle the news well, indicating that she will challenge the president's authority to remove executive branch employees, setting the stage for a legal battle that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The president's recent successes in similar battles over removals of high-level bureaucrats and his ability to fire Federal Reserve board members "for cause" bodes poorly for Cook, who may soon also face criminal charges.
Quick background
Former President Joe Biden nominated Cook, a race-obsessed economist who served on Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, to join the Federal Reserve's board of governors in January 2021.
Critics largely opposed her nomination because of her leftist worldview and her relative lack of experience.
"There's very little on Dr. Cook’s CV to suggest she knows the ins and outs of monetary policy," economics professor Alexander William Salter noted ahead of Cook's confirmation in May 2022. "During her nomination hearing on February 3, she listed one promising qualification: election to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. But this happened less than a month prior, on January 13 (effective January 1)! Nobody is this quick a study."
RELATED: Supreme Court sides with Trump on firing of officials from independent federal agencies
"Professor Cook has no proven expertise in monetary economics at all, much less fighting inflation," Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said prior to Cook's confirmation vote. "Professor Cook is a proven partisan who has promoted left-wing conspiracy theories and called for a fellow academic to be fired because that person did not support defunding the police."
Cook ultimately squeaked through the confirmation process with the help of a tie-breaking vote from then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Housing crisis
Earlier this month, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent a criminal referral for Cook to the Justice Department.
Pulte told Attorney General Pam Bondi in an Aug. 15 letter that mortgage documents appear to indicate that Cook "has falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute."
'The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve.'
"This has included falsifying residence statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property in order to potentially secure lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms," continued Pulte.
Two weeks after taking out a 15-year mortgage agreement for $203,000 on the Michigan property, Cook purchased a condominium in Atlanta and entered into a 30-year mortgage agreement for $540,000. According to Pulte, Biden's Fed governor allegedly listed both residences as her primary.
A CNN review of the mortgage documents found that both properties were indeed listed as Cook's principal residence.
Eviction
President Trump evidently took the allegations very seriously, noting in an Aug. 25 letter to Cook that he shared on Truth Social that "it is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second. It is impossible that you intended to honor both."
"The Federal Reserve has tremendous responsibility for setting interest rates and regulating reserve and member banks," wrote Trump. "The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve."
The president suggested that neither he nor the American people have confidence in Cook's integrity in light of her alleged "deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter."
RELATED: Sean Spicer tells Glenn Beck how Biden unwittingly helped Trump fire 'anyone he wants'
Trump stated, "Pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution of the United States and the Federal Reserve Act of 1912, as amended, you are hereby removed from your position on the Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately."
In response to the firing — reportedly the first time a president has canned or attempted to can a sitting Federal Reserve governor — Pulte thanked Trump for his "commitment to stopping mortgage fraud and following the law."
Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.
The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the development.
Clinging to power
Echoing other presidential appointees who are now out of work, Cook suggested President Trump lacked the authority to give her the boot.
"President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022," said Cook in a statement obtained by Politico.
The fired Fed governor's attorney Abbe Lowell — who has also served as an attorney for pardoned felon Hunter Biden and New York Attorney General Letitia James — stated, "President Trump has taken to social media to once again ‘fire by tweet’ and once again his reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority," adding that "we will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action."
The law firm Lex Politica indicated days ahead of Trump's announcement that "President Trump clearly has authority to remove Governor Cook 'for cause,' assuming the allegations of mortgage fraud or lying on federal ethics forms are confirmed."
The Federal Reserve Act states that each member of the Fed's Board of Governors "shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President."
The firm noted further that while the DOJ's investigation of Cook's alleged conduct and any charges it might bring against her "further support removal for cause ... we do not believe that an indictment is necessary before the President may remove Governor Cook 'for cause' under the Federal Reserve Act."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!Fed chair Powell signals potential rate cuts — but Trump says it’s ‘too late’
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled on Friday that he may consider cutting interest rates in the near future.
During a speech at an annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell hinted at the possibility of changes to interest rates at the next September meeting due to a "shifting balance of risks."
'I personally believe the Fed could cut a full percent and still not have policy unleash inflationary pressures, but I don't foresee a cut that substantial in September.'
He contended that the Federal Reserve's "restrictive policy stance" has been "appropriate to help bring down inflation and to foster a sustainable balance between aggregate demand and supply."
Powell blamed "higher tariffs" for introducing "new challenges" to the U.S. economy and "tighter immigration policy" for causing an "abrupt slowdown in labor force growth." He contended that both factors have impacted demand and supply.
"Over the longer run, changes in tax, spending, and regulatory policies may also have important implications for economic growth and productivity," Powell claimed. "There is significant uncertainty about where all of these policies will eventually settle and what their lasting effects on the economy will be."
RELATED: Powell’s tight money policy is strangling the US economy
He argued that "risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside." Powell called it a "challenging situation" given that the Fed's "framework calls for us to balance both sides of our dual mandate," referring to the labor market and price stability.
However, he indicated that with the policy rate "100 basis points closer to neutral" compared to last year and stability in labor market measures, the Federal Reserve may "proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance."
"Nonetheless, with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance," Powell said.
RELATED: Trump orders Labor Statistics chief to be fired over revisions in weak jobs report
President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to drop interest rates.
"He should have cut them a year ago. He's too late," Trump said Friday afternoon in response to Powell's speech.
Blaze Media contributor Carol Roth told Blaze News, "Reading between the lines, it certainly sounded like Powell was signaling a higher likelihood of a September rate cut, something that the market had already been expecting. In terms of the Fed's stated 'dual mandate,' the pendulum seems to be swinging to more concern over the labor market than inflation, although certainly not ignoring inflation, but rather wanting to avoid a stagflation scenario," Roth said.
"Powell is definitely late to a rate cut, both in terms of supporting the economy and giving the Fed room in terms of future ability to raise rates in the face of any potential spikes in inflation," Roth continued. "While 25 basis points (one quarter of a percent) is the likely size of a cut, it probably isn't enough to be meaningful in terms of consumer or business behavior — it seems more symbolic. I personally believe the Fed could cut a full percent and still not have policy unleash inflationary pressures, but I don't foresee a cut that substantial in September."
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Powell’s tight money policy is strangling the US economy
Two days after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced the central bank’s decision not to reduce interest rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported scathingly bad news about the U.S. economy.
Employers added much fewer jobs than expected in July, revised numbers showed that employment and hiring were weak in May and June, and the unemployment rate ticked up again in July, reaching 4.2%.
Powell and the Fed have been doing their best to stunt economic growth — and they are succeeding.
Although Powell refuses to admit it, the Fed’s tight money policy is crushing economic growth.
In an impressive “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment, Powell said on Wednesday that the Fed was not ready to lower interest rates, citing low unemployment and inflation slightly above the Fed’s stated goal of 2%. Despite the Fed having lowered its target interest rate three times last fall to its current level — even though inflation remained “somewhat elevated” at the time, as the Fed put it — the Fed seems to have changed its tune under the Trump administration.
Friday’s numbers destroyed Powell’s explanation. The 73,000 new jobs in July were far below the 110,000 that economists had expected. In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics cut the reported job-creation totals for May and June from a healthy 291,000 to a dismal 33,000.
The economy has clearly been wobbly since January 2021 brought the tax-spend-borrow strategy that created the Biden-era fiscal disaster. The Fed caused the 2020s inflation by monetizing the Biden administration’s massive, irresponsible increase in the federal deficit and debt; boosting the money supply by 12.3% from January 2021 to April 2022; and holding the Fed funds rate around 0.08% until March 18, 2022, when the Fed raised it to a meager 0.33%.
The Fed’s target interest rate is now 4.33%, much higher than it has been at any other time in the 2000s except for the run-up to the Great Recession of 2008.
Punting responsibility
The central bank watched inflation soar during the Biden administration and wants to ensure that it does not recur. The Fed has used high interest rates and asset sales to tighten the money supply for three years now. Recent money supply growth has been lower than normal.
The federal budget has stabilized now, however, surprisingly running a slight surplus in June, which is relieving the main source of inflationary pressure. The surplus will undoubtedly prove temporary, but the lower-deficit trend will persist as long as economic growth continues and Congress does not increase spending any further: A growing economy provides greater tax revenues.
Powell is scuttling that plan by keeping interest rates too high. Instead of taking responsibility for the lingering effects of his inflationary Biden-assistance plan, Powell has been blaming tariffs and workers for the current slightly elevated inflation.
The Federal Reserve consistently sees low unemployment as bad news, assuming that it will bring on price inflation as workers demand higher wages, emboldened by a reduced fear of being stuck without a job. In addition, Powell argues that tariffs will increase inflation.
Both those notions ignore the simple fact that inflation is a general rise in prices, not price increases in specific sectors of the economy. If tariffs cause the prices of imported goods and some business inputs to rise, prices of other things must fall, unless someone increases the overall money supply — and that would have to be the Fed itself.
Similarly, if wages rise, it must be because productivity is increasing, or businesses would not be able to afford to pay higher wages — unless somebody increases the overall money supply, which again points to the Fed.
If businesses decide to pay the higher wages, even if output per worker is not rising and consumers continue to buy those items at the same rate, prices of other things must fall. Less money available for purchasing or investing in those other things means lower prices — unless the central bank increases the money supply.
Stalling Trump’s progress
Try as he might, Powell cannot exonerate the Fed for the struggles with inflation.
President Trump and congressional Republicans have rolled back the worst of the pandemic- and Biden-era fiscal and regulatory mayhem in addition to the sky-high inflation under the Biden-Harris administration — and the results are beginning to show. The U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly strong 3% annual rate in the second quarter, a clear, positive response to the tax cut extension and major deregulation over the past six months.
The recent extension of the 2017 tax cuts and the Trump administration’s rapid action to deregulate industry and energy will go far in reviving the economy, if given a chance. Unfortunately, the Fed seems determined to thwart a full recovery.
RELATED: Fed Chair Powell defies Trump, keeps interest rates unchanged despite good economic reports
“You do not see weakening in the labor market,” Powell said in his Wednesday press conference, two days before the Bureau of Labor Statistics documented that very weakness.
“Demand for workers is slowing, but so is the supply. … Wages are gradually cooling,” he continued.
We now know why wages have been cooling while the jobs market was strong: The jobs market was not strong. Powell and the Fed have been doing their best to stunt economic growth — and they are succeeding.
Stop the squeeze
All of this suggests that the Fed should reduce interest rates — gradually and with a keen eye monitoring the situation — to give the economy room to expand and take advantage of somewhat-improved federal fiscal, regulatory, and energy policies.
In addition, continuing the slow reduction of the central bank’s balance sheet, which the Fed’s governors nearly doubled in 2009 and foolishly ballooned during the second Obama administration and the pandemic, would continue to provide a brake on inflation without unduly stunting economic growth.
Though federal fiscal policy still needs serious reform — through substantial cuts in spending — squeezing the economy with tight money is certainly not the solution to our economic problems.
The rate cliff is real — and Washington created it
It’s never been more unaffordable to buy and finance a home in America. And yet, government officials seem confused about the cause, chasing “solutions” that will only make things worse. They want more building, lower rates, and more subsidies. But none of that fixes the core problem.
We don’t have a shortage of homes. We have an affordability crisis driven by government intervention — one that’s inflated yet another asset bubble. Housing, like education and health care, has been hijacked by easy money, fake pricing signals, and federal subsidies designed to mask structural rot.
You can’t paper over decades of distortion with another round of Fed intervention.
The solution isn’t more easy money. It’s pulling the plug on government policies that distort markets. Enough with near-zero interest rates. Enough with the Federal Reserve buying mortgage-backed securities. Enough with Fannie, Freddie, and the FHA inflating demand that the market can’t sustain.
Cause and effect
Remember the late ’90s? Mortgage rates sat between 7% and 8%. Nobody panicked or complained much about the cost of living. People bought homes. Prices were reasonable. Inflation was low because deficits were shrinking and money wasn’t being printed into oblivion.
Then came the dot-com crash, George W. Bush’s post-9/11 spending spree, and the Clinton-era “affordable housing” schemes coming due. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s footprint expanded. The Fed, under Chairman Alan Greenspan, dropped rates to near zero — the same path Trump wants now — and we inflated the first major housing bubble of the 21st century.
From 2001 to 2006, Washington juiced the market at every turn. M2 money supply growth topped 10% and stayed above 8% into 2003. The Fed funds rate plummeted from 6.25% to 1%, where it stayed for a full year. Real rates were negative for two and a half years.
No surprise what followed: Real estate loans at commercial banks surged at a compound annual rate of 12.26%. Cheap money and inflated supply pushed prices through the roof. The result was a bubble built not on demand but distortion.
Then came the collapse.
And what did Washington do? Bailouts for big banks. Bailouts for Fannie and Freddie. Dodd-Frank. Obamacare. Trillions in new debt. The Fed held rates near zero for six more years, planting the seeds for the next wave of asset inflation — especially in housing.
Then came COVID.
The government printed $7 trillion and subsidized nearly everything. Rates dropped back near zero. The Fed bought trillions more in mortgage-backed securities. Freddie, Fannie, and the FHA expanded their subsidies even further. By 2021, we had the biggest housing bubble in American history.
Welcome to the rate cliff
Now, we’ve hit the wall. The Fed had to raise rates to fight inflation. That created a generational rate cliff. Sellers don’t want to give up their 2% and 3% mortgages. Buyers can’t afford homes at today’s prices — prices that are still artificially high thanks to 15 years of easy money and government meddling.
And yet, housing starts have held up decently. The problem isn’t inventory — it’s liquidity and affordability.
In June, existing home sales dropped to their slowest pace since 2009. But it’s not because no one’s selling. Redfin reports 500,000 more sellers than buyers — a 33.7% gap, the widest since 2005. Total inventory rose to 1.53 million units, up nearly 16% from last year. Vacancies have spiked 28% since the second quarter of 2022. New home supply has ballooned to 9.8 months.
RELATED: Government broke the housing market — only this will fix it
In a real free market, prices would drop sharply. But when government, either directly or indirectly, backs 90% of the U.S. mortgage market, that’s not how it works. Subsidized mortgages and distorted demand keep prices frozen — even as sales crater.
Sellers want prices buyers can’t afford. According to the Atlanta Fed, a household now needs $124,150 in “qualified income” to afford the median home. But the median household income is just $79,223.
Lowering interest rates again won’t fix this. It’ll just stoke inflation and feed the next bubble. And with the Treasury dumping trillions in debt onto the market, 10-year yields — and therefore 30-year mortgage rates — aren’t coming down anytime soon.
Absent a 2008-level crash, housing prices aren’t dropping meaningfully. We’re stuck.
You want lower rates? Cut spending
If you want rates to fall, slash spending and debt. That’s how you bring prices down. You can’t paper over decades of distortion with another round of Fed intervention.
Live by Fed money printing, die by Fed money printing.
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