Bank of Japan’s silence on US Fed threat should worry us all

The same week the subpoenas were flying, the heads of the European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada, Bank of Korea and other monetary authorities came to Powell’s defense. Yet Trump’s assault on the Fed is the defining central bank risk of our time. “Central bank independence doesn’t mean freedom from explanation. Japan’s central bank has technically been independent since 1998. Or that of the German Bundesbank of old — the institution after which the European Central Bank is modeled.