Susan Kokinda argued that Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and President Donald Trump are pursuing policies that could shift the American economy away from financial speculation and toward domestic growth, energy development and space exploration.
“Yesterday at the Jackson Hole annual summit, new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh opened up that policy conference with this indictment:” Kokinda said before playing remarks from Warsh.
“If the Fed gets inflation wrong and judges the economy wrong, who gets the worst of it? Not the financial high flyers. Hardworking Americans are the ones left to deal with inflation that’s too high, or jobs that suddenly appear less secure,” Warsh said.
Kokinda said Warsh’s comments captured a fundamental problem with an economic system she believes has favored financial interests over working Americans.
“In those two sentences, Warsh captured what has gone wrong with our economy: the high flyers benefit, and working people pay the price,” Kokinda said.
Warsh later directly addressed the Federal Reserve’s responsibility for inflation.
“Now there is one signal nobody can miss: the responsibility for 65 months of sustained elevated inflation sits squarely with the central bank, and that’s where it belongs,” Warsh said.
Kokinda connected the 65-month period to the beginning of former President Joe Biden’s administration and then turned to the Federal Reserve’s use of forward guidance, through which officials signal the likely direction of monetary policy.
Warsh argued against allowing financial markets to become dependent on signals from the central bank.
“But we should not indulge a regime in which market participants are looking primarily to the Fed for their next trade; the economic literature has long described the distorting effects, what it called the Hall of Mirrors problem,” Warsh said.
“Market participants are unlikely to bear the biggest costs of the Hall of Mirrors problem. The most serious harm is likely to befall those without any financial assets.”
Kokinda interpreted the remarks as a move to reduce the Federal Reserve’s influence over financial speculation and redirect attention toward the underlying economy.
“So again, Warsh pointed to how the Fed’s forward guidance helps the market participants and hurts the lower 50% who don’t have financial assets,” Kokinda said.
She then turned to Bessent’s Operation Economic Outcast, announced Aug. 24 and aimed at networks used by Iran to move oil, evade sanctions and conduct financial transactions.
Kokinda highlighted an exchange between Bessent and a reporter concerning why sanctions were not being imposed immediately.
“So, why not impose the sanctions today?” the reporter asked.
“Well, we we are giving everyone the opportunity the to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” Bessent responded.
Kokinda argued that Bessent’s answer revealed the extent to which questionable financial activity is intertwined with the international system.
“Think about that. Bessent is warning that if he were to pull the plug on the bad actors immediately, it would blow up the global financial system,” Kokinda said.
She also pointed to entities in Hong Kong targeted by Treasury and discussed the territory’s financial architecture before connecting Operation Economic Outcast with the administration’s broader policies involving oil markets.
Kokinda cited Trump’s announcement of what he described as a historic oil agreement involving Venezuela.
According to Kokinda, the arrangement gives private businesses majority U.S. control over more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves without cost to American taxpayers.
Kokinda contrasted those financial and energy policies with Trump’s appearance at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four Artemis II astronauts.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman welcomed Trump and outlined the administration’s ambitions in space.
“Mr. President, welcome to Johnson Space Center. I am grateful to serve under a president with the vision and determination to ensure American leadership across the great frontier of space,” Isaacman said.
“We will pursue the secrets of the universe, unlock the economic potential in space, ensure our national security in the ultimate high ground, and inspire the next generation to carry the fire of exploration even further.”
Trump characterized the direction of the American space program as a departure from what he called a previous period of decline.
“Yet, as the world can see today under the Trump administration, we have brought back America’s space program and came out of the dark age, and it’s now into the golden age,” Trump said.
Kokinda said Trump also announced the creation of a United States Space Academy designed to prepare future astronauts, scientists, engineers, operators, entrepreneurs, civil servants and military personnel for an expanded American presence in space.
“This is all of society being drawn into the golden age of exploration,” Kokinda said. “This is the institutional rejection of the empire’s dark age.”
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt also addressed the gathering, connecting space exploration with scientific discovery and freedom.
“We are sampling creation. God is on our side, folks. In this infinitely complex movement of freedom into the solar system, and I’m absolutely convinced he wants us to go farther,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt then connected that exploration with challenges on Earth.
“Now he’s also on our side as well as the infinitely equally complex challenge we have in the preservation of freedom here on this planet,” Schmitt said.
Kokinda concluded that the administration’s moves involving the Federal Reserve, sanctions, energy and space represented different parts of a larger effort to challenge the economic and cultural system she opposes.
“That’s the fight, the preservation of freedom here on this planet,” Kokinda said. “Whether it is freeing ourselves from a financial system that serves the empire or a cultural system of limitations and littleness, that is indeed the infinitely complex challenge before us. And this administration is indeed on the right side, and it does have the right stuff.”
WATCH:
!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u1vds3"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble");
Rumble("play", {"video":"v7cny3q","div":"rumble_v7cny3q"});