2026-04-15 10:05:02 UTC / 路透社
作者：霍华德·施耐德 安·萨菲尔
2026年4月15日 美国东部时间上午10:05 更新于1小时前
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2025年11月14日，美国华盛顿美联储总部大楼仍在翻新中。路透社/伊丽莎白·弗朗茨/档案照片 购买授权，将在新标签页打开
- 内容摘要
- 最高法院案件、政治纷争考验美联储独立性
- 要求总统加大对央行控制权的呼声与美联储独立性辩论同时升温
- 沃尔什出任央行行长后，鲍威尔或继续担任美联储理事
华盛顿/旧金山，4月15日（路透社）——旧金山联邦储备银行行长玛丽·戴利并非通过全民选举产生，不是由民选官员任命，没有与公开公布的候选人名单竞争，也未经过任何公开审查，就由所在银行的董事会赋予了这份有助于塑造美国经济的工作。
但戴利表示，她和其他11位美联储地区银行行长认为自己是美国央行民主合法性的支柱。
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如今，这一地位正面临历史性考验：美国最高法院正在审理特朗普总统能否解雇美联储理事的案件，美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔与特朗普提名的接任者之间的过渡混乱不堪，财政部长斯科特·贝森特还可能推出改革措施——贝森特总体上批评美联储，尤其抨击部分地区储备银行的运作模式。
“回顾最初的法案……你设立这些地区联储，让这些政策制定者的选拔方式与华盛顿的官员不同，”戴利近期对路透社表示，她指的是《联邦储备法》旨在平衡华盛顿总部由总统任命的理事会的集权权力，同时由12位地区领导人带来地方视角参与政策制定。
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12名地区行长中有5名轮流参与货币政策投票，这是美联储主席在制定政策时需要争取的关键票数。
总体而言，他们常称与当地企业高管和劳动者的交流是美联储使命的核心，并表示，无需经民选官员任命或确认，让他们能够不受干扰地保持客观。
参议院确认任命的美联储理事首先会批准地区储备银行的人事任命，戴利称：“这形成了制衡，我认为这是民主制度的一部分。其他人可能有不同看法，但这套体系经受住了时间的考验。”
美联储独立性的广泛辩论
不过，这种安排能否经受住近期出现的政治和法律压力，与特朗普试图解雇美联储理事丽莎·库克的争端，以及鲍威尔是否会任期至2028年的决定密切相关。即便特朗普提名的凯文·沃尔什在5月15日鲍威尔任期结束后获美国参议院确认为美联储新任主席，鲍威尔仍可继续担任理事。
沃尔什的提名确认至少遭到一名关键共和党参议员阻挠，该参议员表示，在特朗普政府针对鲍威尔的调查撤销前，他不会确认沃尔什的提名，认为这项调查是削弱美联储独立性整体计划的一部分。
鲍威尔也对这项调查提出批评，并表示他将“基于对美联储机构和服务民众最有利的考量”，决定是否继续担任理事。这一立场可能让鲍威尔在沃尔什领导的美联储中继续留任，持续反对他认为过于激进的改革。
尽管地区美联储行长通常通过几乎不受华盛顿影响的本地程序聘用，但美联储理事会多数成员可罢免他们，理事会还对重要的美联储职员、预算和监管决策拥有管辖权。现任美联储理事中，3名由前总统乔·拜登任命，3名由特朗普任命。鲍威尔则由前总统巴拉克·奥巴马提名进入美联储理事会，被特朗普提拔为主席，又获拜登连任提名。
特朗普尚未公开对美联储储备银行的架构表现出兴趣，本届政府也未正式提出可能增强白宫对地区联储影响力的改革方案。
但有关地区联储定位的辩论，正与一场更广泛的讨论交织在一起：如何将《联邦储备法》中货币政策独立性这一广受认可的原则，与民主治理和美国宪政体系相协调，各方对现有架构是否具备充分问责性存在巨大分歧。
在近期由“影子公开市场委员会”主办的活动中，哥伦比亚大学法学院教授凯瑟琳·贾奇表示，即便特朗普政府发起的挑战最终失败，也意味着未来将迎来一段“动荡期”，“这可能会大幅削弱美联储独立性赖以存在的基础，而这种独立性将持续脆弱。”该委员会是一个经常批评美联储的独立经济学家团体。
“玩火自焚”
未来走向尚不明朗。
沃尔什泛泛呼吁对美联储进行重大改革，但未提供细节。贝森特发表了一篇长篇文章，批评他认为的美联储对经济的过度干预，并建议对地区储备银行行长的聘用设置任职资格要求。斯蒂芬·米兰在出任美联储理事前，曾为曼哈顿研究所共同撰写一篇研究论文，指出美国总统应有权自由解雇美联储理事会成员和地区储备银行行长，因为当前体系“在某种程度上与美国宪法存在冲突”。该论文将在新标签页打开。
米兰在升任美联储理事前曾是特朗普的顶级经济顾问，他未就是否仍持该观点置评。
这一观点得到了美联储前负责监管的副主席兰德尔·夸尔斯的呼应，作为特朗普任命的官员，他在影子公开市场委员会活动上表示，最高法院在 pending的库克案判决中，不应让美联储官员免受总统解雇，“这既错误又不必要”。
“正确的答案应该是……总统实际上可以因政策意见分歧而解雇美联储理事会的任何人，”夸尔斯称，同时相信参议院对新理事提名的确认程序和地区储备银行行长的作用，仍能防止货币政策被即时的政治诉求绑架。
回应很快接踵而至。
“你绝对是在玩火自焚，”前圣路易斯联邦储备银行行长詹姆斯·布拉德说道。“你难道不认为，如果总统可以随意解雇所有理事，他们反过来也会解雇所有（联储银行）行长？……总会有一个政党掌权，他们想要什么？他们想要低利率，因为他们不想为赤字支出支付高额利息。”
霍华德·施耐德 报道；丹·伯恩斯、保罗·西马奥 编辑
我们的准则：汤森路透信任原则，将在新标签页打开
Fed’s regional banks may be key front in battle for independence
2026-04-15 10:05:02 UTC / Reuters
By Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir
April 15, 2026 10:05 AM UTC Updated 1 hour ago
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Renovations continue at the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
- Supreme Court case, political disputes test Fed’s independence
- Calls for more presidential control simmer alongside Fed independence debate
- Powell may stay on as Fed governor after Warsh becomes central bank chief
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, April 15 (Reuters) – San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly wasn’t elected by popular vote, wasn’t chosen by an elected official, didn’t compete against a publicly revealed slate of applicants and didn’t undergo any public vetting before her bank’s board of directors gave her a job that helps shape the U.S. economy.
Still, Daly says she regards herself and the 11 other Fed regional bank presidents as mainstays of the U.S. central bank’s democratic legitimacy.
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That standing now faces a historic test from a U.S. Supreme Court case over whether President Donald Trump can fire a Fed governor, the muddled transition between Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Trump’s pick to succeed him and reforms that may still be in the wings from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has been critical of the Fed generally and some reserve bank practices in particular.
“Look back to the original act … You create these regional Feds and you make the selection of those policymakers different than the selection of the ones in D.C.,” Daly recently told Reuters, referring to the Federal Reserve Act’s effort to balance the centralized power of the Washington-based and presidentially appointed Board of Governors with 12 regional leaders meant to bring local insight to policymaking.
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Five of the 12 vote on monetary policy on a rotating basis, representing important votes a Fed chief needs to sway in setting policy.
Collectively, they often speak of the time spent talking to local executives and workers as central to the Fed’s mission and say their distance from appointment or confirmation by elected officials frees them to be objective.
With the Senate-confirmed Fed governors signing off on reserve bank hires in the first place, “you have the checks and balances that I think are part of a democratic institution,” Daly said. “Other people can disagree, but this has stood the test of time.”
WIDER DEBATE OVER FED INDEPENDENCE
Whether the arrangement can withstand the political and legal pressures that have developed recently, however, is an issue related to both the battle over Trump’s attempted firing of Fed Governor Lisa Cook and to Powell’s decision over whether to serve out a board term that lasts until 2028. Powell could stay on the board even if the president’s nominee Kevin Warsh is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to succeed Powell as Fed chief after his term expires on May 15.
Warsh’s confirmation has been held up by at least one key Republican senator who says he won’t confirm Warsh until a Trump administration investigation of Powell is dropped, viewing the probe as part of a broader effort to whittle away the Fed’s independence.
Powell has called that probe out as well and said he would decide whether to hold onto his board seat “based on what I think is best for the institution and for the people we serve.” It is a rationale that could see Powell continue at a Warsh-led Fed as an ongoing vote against changes he sees as going too far.
Though hired locally through a process that traditionally has minimal influence from Washington, the regional Fed presidents could be fired by a majority of the board, whose members also have authority over important Fed staff, budgeting and regulatory decisions. Three of the current Fed governors were appointed by former President Joe Biden and three by Trump. Powell, meanwhile, was brought to the Fed’s board by former President Barack Obama, promoted to the top position by Trump and reappointed by Biden.
Trump has shown no public interest in the makeup of the Fed’s reserve banks, and the administration has not formally proposed changes that might boost White House influence over them.
Yet debate about where they fit is enmeshed in a broader discussion about how to square the Federal Reserve Act’s intent for central bank independence over monetary policy, a broadly accepted principle, with democratic governance and the U.S. constitutional system, with lots of disagreement over whether the current arrangement is adequately accountable.
At a recent event sponsored by the Shadow Open Market Committee, an independent group of economists who are often critical of the Fed, Columbia Law School Professor Kathryn Judge said she thought challenges brought by the Trump administration, even if unsuccessful, meant a period of “disruption” ahead that “is likely to dramatically weaken the ground upon which Fed independence has stood, and that independence is going to remain fragile.”
‘PLAYING WITH FIRE’
It is not clear what’s to come.
Warsh has made a generic call for big changes at the Fed, while offering few details. Bessent has published an extensive essay criticizing what he sees as the Fed’s excessive influence in the economy, and suggested a residency requirement for the hiring of its regional bank presidents. Stephen Miran, before becoming a Fed governor, co-authored a research paper, opens new tab for the Manhattan Institute that argued U.S. presidents should be free to fire Fed board members and regional reserve bank leaders because the current system was “in some degree of tension” with the U.S. Constitution.
Miran, who was a top Trump economic adviser before being elevated to the Fed’s board, would not comment on whether he still holds that view.
The idea, however, was echoed by former Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Randall Quarles, a Trump appointee who told the Shadow Open Market Committee that it would be “both wrong and unnecessary” for the Supreme Court in its pending decision on Cook to insulate Fed officials from being fired by the president.
“The right answer is to say … the president can, in fact, dismiss anyone on the Federal Reserve Board because he disagrees with their views on policy,” while trusting that the process of Senate confirmation for new board nominees and the role played by regional reserve bank leaders would still prevent monetary policy from being hijacked by immediate political demands, Quarles said.
A response came quickly.
“You’re absolutely playing with fire,” said former St. Louis Fed President James Bullard. “Do you not think that if you fire all the governors at will, they will just turn around and fire all the (Fed bank) presidents? … One party or another has swept into power and what do they want? They want low interest rates because they don’t want to have to pay a lot for their deficit spending.”
Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Paul Simao
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