April 28, 2025 • 5 mins
CBS News Business Analyst and host of Jill on Money Jill Schlesinger joins us to discuss whether or not President Trump can fire the Fed Chair.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
April is Financial Literacy Month, So let's get Professor Schlessinger
on the line this morning. This is West Michigan's Morning
News Steve Kelly and Brett Mekita. Jill Slessinger is a
CBS News business analyst and host of Jill on Money,
Good Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
That'll be the only time I'm called professor because I
would never work hard enough to get a PhD. God
bless all of you. You are very very strong willed
human beings for those who got those PhDs, But no,
thank you. I'd just rather be called it by my
friends on the radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We both went to large Midwestern universities and we didn't
have a lot of PhDs. There were some I didn't
even want to get a master's. That's why I went
into radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You know what, I have a spouse who's like, you know,
you're the early on. You're the only person I've ever dated.
It isn't of advanced degree. Wow, what a slam.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So let's talk a little bit about speaking of which
President Trump's had a contentious relationship with the FED chair.
He sort of walked back some of his comments. But
one of the questions that you get asked a lot
is can President Trump fire the FED chair.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, And the answer is sorta kinda not really. And
the reason is the Federal Reserve, which was established as
the bank that would kind of make sure that all
the banks are stable. We had a bunch of banking
panics in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, So
nineteen thirteen, I know you guys have it marked on
your calendar. I sure do. The Federal Reserve was created
(01:30):
by Congress and we just wanted a stable banking system.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Interestingly, when they set it up, they said it's got
to be independent, Like we can't have the executive or
Congress messing around with monetary policy because we got to
do what's right. And sometimes what's right is kind of
a hard and bitter pill to swallow. What do I
mean by that? Like right now, the government, the President
and many government officials are like, hey, FED, you should
(01:56):
lower interest rates because the economy is going to slow
down from the very terrible that we have announced. Okay,
But the FED saying, yeah, we got two jobs. One
is to make sure the economy doesn't slow down too
much and that hurts jobs. But the other part of
our job is to make sure that inflation's under control.
And you know, we're not sure, mister President and administration,
whether or not these tariffs are going to lead to
(02:16):
higher prices or slow down growth or a little bit
of both. So the FED wants to basically see, say,
we want to see the incoming reports so we understand
which one is more important. Now can the President actually
say Powell go take a hike. Well, Powell's in place
as the FED chair until July twenty twenty six. He
(02:36):
can only be fired for cause. I think of cause
as like, you know, a crime, you know, embezzlement. Maybe
he like I don't know, does something terrible, like you know,
he assaults somebody. Short of that, no, he really can't
fire the FED chair.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I want to work back in level of importance because
it's a time thing. But let's go to social Security
because the government is getting and a lot of pushback
and a lot of worry has come. Those who are
reliant on social Security were those who paid into it
their whole life. Right. Yes, we've heard a lot about
will it be there when I'm ready to retire?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah? I bet you hear this from your kids a lot.
I mean I hear this a lot from younger people,
but more recently have heard it from older people, so
people in their late fifties and early sixties. And one
specific note really caught my eye that during the whole
Doge cut scenario, a lot of people were freaking out
and they were like, Hey, I was going to wait
until what's called my full retirement age to claim Social Security,
(03:36):
which is usually about sixty seven if you were born
after nineteen sixty. But a lot of these folks are like,
maybe I should claim right now so I can kind
of get in under the gun before any changes occur.
I don't think that this administration is going to mess
around with Social Security benefits. By the way, the administration
and President Trump himself, they repeatedly said they are not
(03:58):
making cuts to Social Security or Medicare for that matter. Okay,
that's what they've said, So what is the deal here.
You can claim your benefit as early as age sixty two,
which you would do if you have no other source
of income, or if you're in very bad health, if
you have a condition that would suggest you're not going
to live so long you claim at sixty two. The
reason why we don't like claiming it sixty two is
(04:18):
your benefit is permanently reduced, and if you have a
non working spouse who relies on your Social Security record,
that impacts your spouse as well. If you wait till
sixty seven, you'll get more money. And if you can
wait even longer to age seventy, that's where social security
benefits max out. You get about eight percent a year
more for each full year that you wait. And remember
(04:41):
social Security, it's indexed for inflation, which makes it even
more valuable to wait if you can. So, I don't
think anything's going to happen. Everyone take a deep breath
and you know so be it. That's your financial literacy
month Primer of Social Security? Did I do? Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Well done? Jill's lesseners This news business Analyst always great stuff.
Thank you, Take care
April is Financial Literacy Month, So let's get Professor Schlessinger
on the line this morning. This is West Michigan's Morning
News Steve Kelly and Brett Mekita. Jill Slessinger is a
CBS News business analyst and host of Jill on Money,
Good Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
That'll be the only time I'm called professor because I
would never work hard enough to get a PhD. God
bless all of you. You are very very strong willed
human beings for those who got those PhDs, But no,
thank you. I'd just rather be called it by my
friends on the radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We both went to large Midwestern universities and we didn't
have a lot of PhDs. There were some I didn't
even want to get a master's. That's why I went
into radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You know what, I have a spouse who's like, you know,
you're the early on. You're the only person I've ever dated.
It isn't of advanced degree. Wow, what a slam.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So let's talk a little bit about speaking of which
President Trump's had a contentious relationship with the FED chair.
He sort of walked back some of his comments. But
one of the questions that you get asked a lot
is can President Trump fire the FED chair.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, And the answer is sorta kinda not really. And
the reason is the Federal Reserve, which was established as
the bank that would kind of make sure that all
the banks are stable. We had a bunch of banking
panics in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, So
nineteen thirteen, I know you guys have it marked on
your calendar. I sure do. The Federal Reserve was created
(01:30):
by Congress and we just wanted a stable banking system.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Interestingly, when they set it up, they said it's got
to be independent, Like we can't have the executive or
Congress messing around with monetary policy because we got to
do what's right. And sometimes what's right is kind of
a hard and bitter pill to swallow. What do I
mean by that? Like right now, the government, the President
and many government officials are like, hey, FED, you should
(01:56):
lower interest rates because the economy is going to slow
down from the very terrible that we have announced. Okay,
But the FED saying, yeah, we got two jobs. One
is to make sure the economy doesn't slow down too
much and that hurts jobs. But the other part of
our job is to make sure that inflation's under control.
And you know, we're not sure, mister President and administration,
whether or not these tariffs are going to lead to
(02:16):
higher prices or slow down growth or a little bit
of both. So the FED wants to basically see, say,
we want to see the incoming reports so we understand
which one is more important. Now can the President actually
say Powell go take a hike. Well, Powell's in place
as the FED chair until July twenty twenty six. He
(02:36):
can only be fired for cause. I think of cause
as like, you know, a crime, you know, embezzlement. Maybe
he like I don't know, does something terrible, like you know,
he assaults somebody. Short of that, no, he really can't
fire the FED chair.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I want to work back in level of importance because
it's a time thing. But let's go to social Security
because the government is getting and a lot of pushback
and a lot of worry has come. Those who are
reliant on social Security were those who paid into it
their whole life. Right. Yes, we've heard a lot about
will it be there when I'm ready to retire?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah? I bet you hear this from your kids a lot.
I mean I hear this a lot from younger people,
but more recently have heard it from older people, so
people in their late fifties and early sixties. And one
specific note really caught my eye that during the whole
Doge cut scenario, a lot of people were freaking out
and they were like, Hey, I was going to wait
until what's called my full retirement age to claim Social Security,
(03:36):
which is usually about sixty seven if you were born
after nineteen sixty. But a lot of these folks are like,
maybe I should claim right now so I can kind
of get in under the gun before any changes occur.
I don't think that this administration is going to mess
around with Social Security benefits. By the way, the administration
and President Trump himself, they repeatedly said they are not
(03:58):
making cuts to Social Security or Medicare for that matter. Okay,
that's what they've said, So what is the deal here.
You can claim your benefit as early as age sixty two,
which you would do if you have no other source
of income, or if you're in very bad health, if
you have a condition that would suggest you're not going
to live so long you claim at sixty two. The
reason why we don't like claiming it sixty two is
(04:18):
your benefit is permanently reduced, and if you have a
non working spouse who relies on your Social Security record,
that impacts your spouse as well. If you wait till
sixty seven, you'll get more money. And if you can
wait even longer to age seventy, that's where social security
benefits max out. You get about eight percent a year
more for each full year that you wait. And remember
(04:41):
social Security, it's indexed for inflation, which makes it even
more valuable to wait if you can. So, I don't
think anything's going to happen. Everyone take a deep breath
and you know so be it. That's your financial literacy
month Primer of Social Security? Did I do? Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Well done? Jill's lesseners This news business Analyst always great stuff.
Thank you, Take care
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