New Delhi, April 27 -- POLITICIANS HAVE usually let America's central bank be. Few voters pay direct attention to monetary policy, and when they notice inflation, it can be helpful to have someone else to blame. Donald Trump is not a usual politician. So in his second term the president, who believes interest rates are too high, has assailed the Federal Reserve with angry lawsuits, fulminated on social media about its chair, Jerome "too late" Powell, and launched a bogus criminal probe into Mr Powell to browbeat him.

So far presidential haranguing has not had the desired effect. It may even have backfired, by stiffening the spines of the Fed's defenders. The Supreme Court looks poised to deny Mr Trump the right to fire Lisa Cook, a Fed g...