Across the globe, leaders like Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron are challenging institutional independence and exerting their influence over monetary policy – but they could come to regret it, says Helen Thomas

For much of the past three decades, central bank independence has been treated as a settled question. Monetary policy was best left to technocrats, insulated from the electoral cycle and free to take unpopular decisions in pursuit of price stability. That consensus is now visibly fraying. Leaders across the world are tussling with the pernicious persistence of electoral kryptonite: inflation. When people feel poorer, politicians pay the price. It is no longer a matter that can be left to unelected technocrats gathering monthly behind closed doors. Political leaders want a seat in the room, even if it undermines institutional credibility and unsettles financial markets.

In the United States, Donald Trump has once again placed the Federal Reserve squarely in his sights. The two Kevins, Hassett and Warsh, are in pole position to take the role of Chair. But Trump is not a man who would ever pass up the opportunity to create a box office nailbiter. He literally made his name on a TV show that reached its denouement with the........

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