Elizabeth Warren: Fed Chair Powell wants to ‘put millions of people out of work’ to fight inflation

Sen. Elizabeth Warren tore into Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell on Sunday, accusing the presidential appointee of wanting to put millions of people out of work to combat inflation by continuing to raise interest rates.

“He has a dual mandate. Yes, he is responsible for dealing with inflation, but he is also responsible for employment,” the Massachusetts Democrat said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And what Chair Powell is trying to do — and he has said fairly explicitly is that they are trying to, in effect, slow down the economy so that, by the Fed’s own estimate, 2 million people will lose their jobs. And I believe that is not what the chair of the Federal Reserve should be doing.”

Another quarter-point interest rate hike, or .25%, is on the table as the administration continues to try to blunt record inflation amid a potential banking crisis.

The Fed has limited options to curb rising prices, one of them being interest rate hikes.

“All it does, at least by the way the chair wants to do this, is put millions of people out of work,” Ms. Warren said.