The deeper issue in the Fed Chair selection

plus: KlarnaUSD, retail sales, wholesale inflation, capital ratios and more

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” – G. K. Chesterton ||

Hello everyone!

To all of you in the US gearing up for a holiday weekend, I wish you clear skies, great food and warm company. Plus, you have my ✨ most heartfelt thanks ✨ for being a reader of this newsletter – we have so much more to explore.

🍂

Production note: This newsletter will take a short break over the Thanksgiving holiday, so no dailies tomorrow and Friday, but I will publish the free weekly on Saturday.

🍂

Here’s a link to my op-ed published in American Banker last week (paywall, sorry), in which I show that “deposit tokens” and “tokenized deposits” are not the same thing at all, and why this matters.

🍂

And if you speak Spanish and are interested in a less frequent, shorter update on developments in the crypto-macro intersection, you can subscribe to Cripto es Macro here.

---

PUBLISHED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: ✨ ALLIUM ✨

As traditional finance and crypto converge, trusted data is the missing infrastructure layer. Allium provides this data foundation for teams like Visa, Stripe and Grayscale.

Our latest whitepaper published with Visa, Stablecoins Beyond Payments: The Onchain Lending Opportunity, examines how banks can access emerging credit markets, as stablecoin lending volumes reached over $50bn in August 2025.

If you’re producing institutional crypto research or analytics, start with trusted data. Explore a live demo.

---

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• The deeper issue in the Fed Chair selection

• KlarnaUSD: when PR takes over

• Macro-Crypto Bits: capital ratios, consumer sentiment, retail sales, wholesale prices

Crypto is Macro Now offers ~daily commentary and updates on the overlap between the crypto and macro landscapes.

WHAT I’M WATCHING:

The deeper issue in the Fed Chair selection

Kevin Hassett for Fed Chair? Sigh.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that White House insiders are pointing to the White House National Economic Council Director as Trump’s pick for Chairman of the Federal Reserve when Jerome Powell steps down next May. Last week, President Trump told reporters that he knew who he would choose. And this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent finishes his interviews of likely candidates. So the timing checks out.

While it would be good to know who it will be, I can’t help but feel disappointment reinforced with concern. Hassett is the least likely to maintain a semblance of central bank independence as his talking points have underscored his loyalty to a President determined to get interest rates down.

And so far, his many (many, many) public comments have bordered on the inane.

So, sigh.

But, let’s focus on the upside, and on the bigger picture here.