An illustration of three sledgehammers on top of a smashed layer of glass over an image of a classical building with a pediment and columned portico.

Illustration: Carl Godfrey/Getty Images

Jan 14th 2026|London, Tokyo and Washington, DC|8 min read

THE IDEA that central banks should enjoy some independence is as old as central banking. “I want [it] to be sufficiently in the hands of the government, but not too much,” mused Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806 of the recently created Bank of France. Try telling that to President Donald Trump. He has spent the past year bullying the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates faster. The campaign escalated on January 11th, when Jerome Powell, the Fed’s chair, said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas. Mr Powell said he is now under threat of a criminal indictment relating to a long-running spat over the cost of renovating the central bank’s headquarters.

Signage for Mizuho Bank Ltd., a unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (MHFG), at one of the bank's branches in Tokyo, Japan.

It’s not just the Fed. Politics looms over central banks everywhere