Free Banking: The Project 2025 Plan For Your Money

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Trump has discussed removing Fed Chair Jerome Powell in recent months.

The story, already setting the financial world abuzz with rumors, grew further when Trump himself posted to his social media account today with wishes that Powell be “terminated” from his position.

The Federal Reserve System has three main parts: the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks (pictured below), the Board of Governors, consisting of 7 members appointed by the President, and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which is the Board of Governors and five of the twelve Federal Reserve Bank presidents.

The Vice Chair and Chair are also individually appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

The FOMC makes the Fed’s monetary policy. It decides interest rates at its member banks, engages in Quantitative Easing (the purchase of stocks, bonds, and other assets), or Quantitative Tightening (selling those assets) to help facilitate the amount of money flowing through the banking system, and other actions that are designed to curb inflation, encourage job growth, and more to manage our nation’s money supply.

The Fed is an independent body, but it works in conjunction with our government’s fiscal policy to provide a stable financial footing for our economy to stand on.

The independence of the Fed, free of political restraints and responding to only unbiased data on employment and inflation, is the cornerstone of our entire economy. If Trump is successful in getting Powell removed and replacing him with a sycophant who will do Trump’s bidding, our economy could be dismantled faster than you can say “bank run”.

Trump’s regime is planning to request that the Supreme Court overturn Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a decision that keeps independent agencies free of Executive meddling. “In that decision, the court barred Franklin Delano Roosevelt from firing a Republican member of the Federal Trade Commission. The decision protects the heads of independent, multimember agencies from unjustified removal to allow the agencies to function without the threat of political retaliation.”

Where does this reckless nonchalance for our independent financial system come from? Project 2025.

On Page 736, Project 2025 calls for “Free Banking” because it believes “competition keeps banks from overprinting or lending irresponsibly. This is because any bank that issues more paper than it has assets available would be subject to competitor banks’ presenting its notes for redemption. In the extreme, an overissuing bank could be liable to a bank run. Reckless banks’ competitors have good incentives to police risk closely lest their own holdings of competitor dollars become worthless.”

It is difficult for me to articulate what an absolute nightmare the Suffolk System was in the mid-1800s. Introducing it into the modern economy would create economic chaos, obliterating the value of assets and property, plus curtail or eliminate the ability to exchange money between banks.

Project 2025 assumes Free Banking will lead to “stable and sound currencies and strong financial systems because customers will avoid the riskier issuers, driving them out of the market.”

This ignores how these banks could openly launder money, obfuscate assets from customers and investigating authorities, and the lack of a stable exchange currency would cause deflation in some regions, hyperinflation in other regions, and destroy commerce as we know it.

I have always believed the key to a stable banking system, a stable economy that’s fair for everyone, and a reliable financial future is strict financial regulations, high taxes on higher earners and corporations, and a robust social safety net that ensures no one is left behind.

Free Banking would make owning a home an impossibility for most, would destroy any savings people currently have, and create a system that makes financial planning and retirement a pipe dream for 99% of people.