... depends which lawyer you ask.
Legitimacy seems to be based more upon Constitutional 'precendent' than explicit enumeration.
Since the Federal Reserve was created via Congressional Legislation, it can be reformed or disbanded by Congressional Legislation.
Every President wants lower interest rates because monetary policy is easier to implement than fiscal policy.
Every debtor wants hyperinflation to pay off longer term debt with lower future value dollars.
Watch the price of gold and US Treasury Bond interest rates.
America could experience a confluence of hyperinflation, higher real interest rates, and bank insolvencies (due to falling mark-to-market collateral value of US Treasury Bonds).
My local bank's CD Rate yield curve is inverted. 3-12 month CD yields are higher than 18-60 month CD yields. Longer term debt is supposed to be more expensive (higher rates) than shorter term debt.
The Federal Reserve can manipulate some interest rates, but not all of them. There could be a significant divergence between Fed rates and real (market) interest rates.
For dollar denominated bonds to be marketable, their yield would need to be equal or greater than the rate of inflation / dollar devaluation rate. If bond rates rise too much, too quickly, it could kick off a wave of financial institution insolvencies as the mark-to-market rate of their reserves in US Treasury Bonds lose value.
Congress will want to keep printing money (inflation). The market does not want to buy, hold, or own long-dated debt (higher real interest rates). The Fed lowers its rates which increases consumption, thus contributing to more inflation. Higher inflation drives higher rates for new longer-term debt while decreasing the value of existing debt instruments. New debt becomes more expensive and old debt instruments become more worthless.
Gold becomes a more reliable store of wealth than long-term US Treasury Bonds.
It will suck to be holding longer-term US Treasury Bonds when the Fiscal Ponzi Scheme collapses.
