In a viral exchange back in March, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) grilled Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the unemployment caused by the Fed’s recent rate hiking cycle.
“Do you call laying off two million people this year not a ‘sharp’ increase?” the senator asked. “Explain that to the two million families who are going to be out of work.”
Warren is not the only lawmaker to pressure the central bank to soften its fight against inflation. At the start of the month, she and nine other members of Congress—including Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—penned a letter to Chair Powell urging him to pause interest rate hikes at the upcoming meeting, a plea he did not grant….