Trump Attacks The Fed; Life After Cars w/ Doug Gordon, Sarah Goodyear | MR Live

Donald Trump's Department of Justice initiated a criminal investigation against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, ostensibly over cost overruns in a building renovation. Host Sam Seder frames this as a clear attempt at political intimidation, aiming to pressure the Fed into lowering interest rates to stimulate the economy before midterm elections. This action is seen as a direct assault on the Fed's independence, which Seder notes is one of the few institutions the Supreme Court has deemed immune to complete presidential whim.

Sam Seder's opening monologue details the DOJ's criminal investigation into Jerome Powell for 'cost overruns at the building of the Federal Reserve construction over the past several years.' Powell's own statement confirms grand jury subpoenas and frames the action as 'unprecedented' and 'not about my testimony last June or about the renovation... It is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.'

The authors of 'Life After Cars' argue that America's 'love affair with the automobile' was not an organic cultural development but a manufactured narrative driven by major corporate interests like DuPont (which had a significant stake in General Motors). These corporations actively promoted car ownership through media and lobbied against public transit, systematically dismantling robust trolley and train systems to ensure automobile dominance and profit from fossil fuels.

Sarah Goodyear cites a Groucho Marx show, 'America's Love Affair with the Automobile,' sponsored by DuPont (23% interest in GM), as an example of corporate propaganda. Doug Gordon references Peter Norton's book 'Fighting Traffic' and the 1923 Cincinnati ordinance to limit car speeds, which was defeated by 'Motoredom' interests through extensive lobbying and fear-mongering.

Car culture imposes a 'tyranny' by making individuals dependent on automobiles for mobility, limiting independence, especially for children and those without licenses. This dependency leads to significant societal costs: thousands of annual traffic deaths, increased pollution, social isolation, and immense financial burdens from car ownership, insurance, and housing sprawl that necessitates long commutes.

Doug Gordon describes growing up 'trapped at home' without a car, contrasting it with his children's independence in walkable Brooklyn. Sarah Goodyear notes the 'enormous financial burden that car ownership imposes' and how a 'walkable neighborhood... has become a luxury good.' Doug mentions '40,000 Americans die in car crashes every year.'

Cities globally have demonstrated that reducing car dependency is achievable and beneficial. Gent, Belgium, implemented a low-cost plan to reroute through-traffic, dramatically increasing cycling and walking while reducing pollution. New York City's congestion pricing and investment in public transit, particularly under Mayor Manny, show how political leadership can prioritize human-centric urban planning, leading to improved quality of life and even reduced travel times for necessary drivers.

Doug Gordon details Gent's strategy of dividing the city into sections and forcing through-traffic onto a ring road, costing less than 10 million euros and achieving cycling goals within two years. Sarah Goodyear highlights New York's progress under Janette Sadik Khan and Mayor Manny, who made public transportation a central platform, leading to initiatives like the 34th Street busway and a comprehensive redesign of Delancey Street.

Resistance to public transportation and walkable cities is often rooted in a historical, racialized, and anti-urban hostility. Policies like the interstate highway system were designed not only to facilitate sprawl but also to physically destroy and divide urban communities, disproportionately impacting black and brown neighborhoods. This ideology continues to manifest in demonizing public transit and framing cities as inherently dangerous or 'pestilential.'

Sarah Goodyear links anti-public transit sentiment to a 'fundamentally anti-urban hostility' traceable to Thomas Jefferson, seeing cities as places where 'sin and so forth would flourish.' Doug Gordon adds that the interstate highway system was 'aimed at the cities, it destroyed cities quite physically' and that current freeway widening projects in places like Houston continue to impact 'the exact same black and brown communities that were targeted back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.'