Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a Monday interview on CNBC that we should examine whether the institution of the Federal Reserve has been a success overall. “All these PhDs over there-I don’t know what they do,” he said. “This is like universal basic income for academic economists.”

TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful. I’m speaking, actually. I’m going to be in the building this evening. There is a regulatory conference that begins tomorrow. I’m the keynote speaker tonight, talking about regulation. The Fed, as well, deals with monetary policy, regulations, financial stability. And again, I think that we should think: has the organization succeeded in its mission? You know, if this were the FAA and we were having this many mistakes, we would go back and look at, “Why has this happened?” I mean, look at the-as you said at the top of this broadcast-there was fear-mongering over tariffs. And thus far, we have seen very little, if any, inflation. We’ve had great inflation numbers. So, you know, I think this idea of them not being able to break out of a certain mindset-all these PhDs over there-I don’t know what they do. I don’t know what they do. This is like universal basic income for academic economists.

Full interview: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss the latest developments on U.S. trade negotiations, impact of looming August 1 deadline, prospects of any trade deals, escalating feud between President Trump and Fed Chair Powell, his thoughts on the Federal Reserve, Russian sanctions, and more.
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