graham steele

As Trump raged about Jay Powell at the end of 2018, Epstein emails Bannon: "getting rid of powell much more important than syria/mattis" (Mattis had resigned two days earlier)

Bannon responds: "Can u get rid of Powell or really get rid of mnuchin"

www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company $500 million investment for 49% of World Liberty came months before U.A.E. won access to tightly guarded American AI chips.

In the days before the presidential inauguration, an Emirati sheikh paid $187 million to entities controlled by Donald Trump’s family to take a major stake in one of the president’s crypto companies, World Liberty Financial.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Trump wants to build a 250-foot-tall arch, dwarfing the Lincoln Memorial The president is eying a plot of land near Memorial Bridge. The art critic who proposed the idea called for a smaller arch or for Trump to pick a new site.

New at @washingtonpost.com:

Trump wants to build a *250-ft-tall arch*, for America’s 250th anniversary

The structure would tower over nearby memorials — changing DC’s skyline and blocking views of the Lincoln Memorial

It’s also spooking experts who say it’s just too big

❤️

Someone is campaigning to be the next Fed Vice Chair.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Planned Trip to Epstein’s Island

NEW: Howard Lutnick, the billionaire who serves as President Trump’s commerce secretary, planned a visit to Epstein’s island in 2012.

Lutnick previously claimed that he was so revolted by Epstein that he had cut ties with him years earlier.

1/6

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

I’m calling on Governor Mike DeWine and Senators Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno to put Ohio communities first and join my call to extend TPS for the Haitian community.

Tillis:

Regulation and Its Discontents Thank you to the New York Association for Business Economics for hosting me. We remain in a period of great consequence for the U.S. eco

It will be interesting to see how Warsh tries to square some of his past statements, eg, this speech from 2010, that were quite hawkish on bank regulation with the current administration’s deregulatory agenda.
www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Trump sues IRS, Treasury Department for $10 billion over tax return leak U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ‌sued the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department for $10 billion over the disclosure of his tax returns to the media in 2019 ‌and 2020.

In other news today: Trump sues IRS, Treasury Department for $10 billion over tax return leak - www.reuters.com/markets/us/t...

Trump says he will announce his pick for Fed chair next week.

Whoa. D.Minn's chief judge Patrick Schiltz dockets a list of "96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases."

www.courtlistener.com/docket/72120...

Trump's JPM lawsuit unlikely to succeed, experts say President Donald Trump's recently filed lawsuit against megabank JPMorganChase and its CEO Jamie Dimon is not expected to succeed in court, legal experts say.

"It should trouble us all when a sitting president attempts to use his office to enrich himself by shaking down private financial institutions." — Expert @grahamsteele.bsky.social on Trump’s lawsuit against JPMorgan and Jamie Dimon: www.americanbanker.com/news/trumps-...

Strong dollar policy dying in real time.

S.E.C. Drops Case Against Cryptocurrency Firm Founded by Winklevoss Twins

The Winklevoss twins:
▶️gave $1M+ each to a Trump cmte in 2024
▶️donated to the WH ballroom
▶️backed a crypto firm co-founded by Eric Trump
▶️were founding members of Don Jr.'s private club

The SEC has now agreed to dismiss a case against the twins' crypto exchange, per a filing made public on Friday.

"I build real estate document search portal sites for Wells Fargo. I am the square community."

The US President is suing the nation's largest bank for $5 billion in damages over the bank closing his accounts following January 6th.

One reason to have independent agencies is so that presidents can't use the regulatory apparatus as leverage to extract money from private businesses.

Supreme Court Hearing Reveals Unease Over Threats to Fed Independence

NEW: For a judicial body often fraught with division over Trump’s claims to executive power, the Supreme Court on Wednesday found moments of unity in questioning the economic costs of the president’s efforts to meddle with the Fed

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u... @nytimes.com @tonyromm.bsky.social

Trump has said at Davos:

- Credit cards should be caped at 10%
- "What the hell happened to Macron with those beautiful sunglasses"
- He will announce a new Fed chair
- Working on crypto market regulation

EXCLUSIVE: Germany has joined France in saying it will ask the European Commission to explore unleashing the EU's so-called trade "bazooka" in response to Trump's threat to seize Greenland, according to five diplomats with knowledge of the situation.

🔗 www.politico.eu/article/eu-b...

I will say that the ethics violations have been troubling. But at least one of the cases was a Trump appointee. And this White House has not been especially concerned about government ethics rules, to put it mildly.

The Treasury Secretary criticized Fed Chair Powell for asset purchases the Fed made during the COVID pandemic to stabilize the economy... while Trump was president?

Bessent Calls Powell’s Attendance at Supreme Court Arguments on Fed Independence a ‘Mistake’

Bessent (who sat in the gallery when SCOTUS heard the tariff case) says Powell’s attendance at the LIsa Cook hearing tomorrow is a ‘mistake’ www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...

Goldman Sachs Grapples With Top Lawyer’s Epstein Problem A key executive told others he was formulating a contingency plan for Kathryn Ruemmler to leave after revelations about her Epstein ties.

A top Goldman executive told others he was formulating a contingency plan for the bank’s general counsel to leave after revelations about her Epstein ties.

Treasuries Join Global Bond Selloff as Tariff Fears Grip Markets Treasuries joined a selloff in global bonds amid concerns about fiscal spending, a fresh geopolitical tariff threat and questions over the impact that might have on demand for American assets.

Treasuries joined a selloff in global bonds on Tuesday as escalating trade tensions spurred by proposed US tariffs relating to Greenland undermined demand for American assets.

Better late than never.

BlackRock’s ‘Woke’ Era Is Over The asset manager has dropped out of climate groups and eliminated diversity targets as it tries to put ESG controversy behind it.

Not long ago, conservatives criticized BlackRock as the exemplar of "woke capital" for pursuing ESG investment strategies.

Walking that all back has taken off the political heat and put them in a position to profit from the administration's version of state capitalism.
www.wsj.com/business/bla...

A few years ago, I wrote about the political and economic power of the Big Three asset managers, including BlackRock, and their influence over businesses and governments.

Their involvement in Ukraine takes these concerns to an international scale.
www.economicliberties.us/our-work/new...

The role of U.S. sovereign debt as the global reserve asset and safe investment also creates exposures between governments. China’s significant holdings of debt issued by the U.S. housing-focused government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, made them “gravely concerned” about the fate of the GSEs during the Global Financial Crisis and required U.S. officials to keep their Chinese counterparts apprised of GSE bailout and reform efforts.301 It later came to light that Russia sought to coordinate with China to begin selling GSE debt, thereby exacerbating the crisis and raising the costs of the U.S. fiscal response.

It’s not a hypothetical concern. In this paper I discuss the time that Russia approached China about further destabilizing the US economy by dumping US treasury and agency debt during the 2008 financial crisis.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I talked a bit about these dynamics in this @justsecurity.org post.

Other countries—even ostensible allies—can seek to turn the exorbitant privilege and the status of the US dollar into a strategic vulnerability.
www.justsecurity.org/125738/what-...