Former Fed chairs and Treasury secretaries: Statement on the Federal Reserve

Signed by:

* Every former living Fed Chair (Bernanke, Greenspan, Yellen)

* Bipartisan former Treasury Secretaries (Geithner, Paulson, others)

* Bipartisan former CEA Chairs (Hubbard, Mankiw, Romer, Furman)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582420

> … in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law …

I faintly remember the rule of law.

Trump claims he knows nothing about this investigation. I don’t believe him. For months he has been attacking the Federal Reserve, undermining its credibility as an institution (as he did previously about the press or the UN or whatever), and escalating his administration’s actions so that each new outrage feels less crazy because of all the other outrages. This is no different. It is part of the playbook. Lying is part of the playbook. Denying knowledge of a DOJ that is corrupt is part of the playbook. That playbook is the unitary executive model, which is a lot like a dictatorship model. The executive can do whatever it wants. I feel we need a rethink of our checks and balances to address this gap.

How do we know this is real? I don't know much about Substack, but couldn't just about anyone create this, and "sign" it?

Have _any_ of the signers contended that it isn't real and/or they didn't sign it?

The Substack was launched 3 hours ago. If they weren't involved, they might not even be aware of it.

Exactly. If there were not involved, they might never be aware of it.

The statement is being reported by various news outlets - I don’t see a link to this substack from those articles but the quotes match up to what is at this link. I assume the Susbtack is from someone else who got a copy of the statement. Example article:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/12/trump-conde...

That might be it! First mention of Substack found: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-reserve-jerome-powell-y...

> How do we know this is real?

I (the OP) got it from Furman's X/Twitter account; he is a co-signer:

* https://x.com/jasonfurman/status/2010737147129774577#m

* https://xcancel.com/jasonfurman/status/2010737147129774577#m

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Furman

NYT reporter Colby Smith:

* https://xcancel.com/colbyLsmith/status/2010731616684187782#m

Various news agencies are now talking about it:

* https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/former-fed-chairs-treasu...

* https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c394xwdve9lo

* https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/12/greenspan-bernanke-yellen-tr...

* https://www.reuters.com/world/us/past-three-fed-chairs-decry...

* https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/12/trump-conde...