The announcement from President Donald Trump on Aug. 25 that he was firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook amounts to an extraordinary weaponization of the housing finance system that depends on private, deeply personal data from millions of Americans, experts said the following day. In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed “sufficient cause” to remove Cook immediately, pointing to accusations that she had made false statements on mortgage applications, and bringing the president one step closer to shaping the balance of the Fed’s seven-member board in his favor, as he’s attempted to do for months. That step “is nothing more than one person’s inference from documents,” said Karen Petrou, co-founder of Federal Financial Analytics, Inc., and long-time Fed-watcher. “It’s not what the law calls sufficient cause suitable for firing a Federal Reserve governor. It’s just an assault on the independence of the Fed.”….While many experts, including Levitin, have spoken out about what seems like a clear attempt to remove any Fed official who doesn’t agree with the president’s stance on interest rates, Petrou is also struck by what she calls “abuse” of a system that depends on extensive amounts of confidential personal information.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2025/08/26/lisa-cook-firing-weaponizing-housing-finance/85834374007/
