How jobs data impacts interest rate decision

So you no doubt saw that our Weijia Jiang just spoke to the White House economic director, Kevin Hassett, about the search for a new Federal Reserve chair. I want to play a bit of that for our viewers. And let's talk about it.

The job of the Federal Reserve chair is to run the Federal Reserve independently. It's also the job of the Federal Reserve to be nonpartisan and to focus on monetary policy. And I think that one of the things that the president's been disappointed in is that the Fed has been quite partisan in cutting rates right before election, focusing so much on issues other than monetary policy. Very interesting. What do you think? Well, I think on the one hand, Hassett is trying to make his case for why he should be Fed Chair. He is one of the final folks that we know are being considered as well as a number of others like Warsh. But on the one hand, the Fed needs to remain independent. And I think he's trying to stifle critics that are saying, hey, you're just going to end up doing what the president wants. And he's trying to say, no, absolutely not. Because remember, the Fed Chair, this is a multiyear thing. It would go past President Trump's term. And depending on whether a Republican or a Democrat is in office after that, you would still have that same Fed Chair. On the other hand, this is a position that is appointed by the administration, not just the Trump administration. This has happened years and years in the past. So there is always this tension of whether that person is going to do their appointer's bidding or they are going to remain independent. And I think, by and large, you have seen over the past many Fed chairs, they have prioritized that independence and really that tension between labor market and inflation and drowned out the noise.

All right. Kelly O'Grady from the floor of the Exchange for us. Thank you, Kelly.