The Competent Investor

Danielle DiMartino Booth: Warsh’s Fed Takeover | A Quiet Coup Brewing?

The Competent Investor

Show Notes

Tom Bodrovics welcomes back Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and Chief Strategist for Quill Intelligence LLC, for a discussion on the economic landscape and the Federal Reserve’s role. DiMartino Booth highlights the complexities surrounding Jerome Powell’s potential departure from the Fed, noting that while Powell has faced criminal charges, he is likely to stay to protect his integrity and prevent a Trump-appointed successor. She draws a historical parallel to Mariner Eccles’ tenure, suggesting that Powell’s presence ensures a separation between the Treasury and the Fed’s monetary policy.

Watch this video on YouTube

The conversation also touches on the Fed’s communication strategies and the potential for a liquidity crisis, with DiMartino Booth advising incoming Fed Chair Kevin Warsh to prepare for such an event. Danielle emphasizes that the U.S. is already in a recession, evidenced by job losses and GDP revisions. She points out the impact of rising oil prices and the potential for a prolonged recession, noting that the oil shock could exacerbate existing economic issues. Danielle also explores the implications of high levels of household debt and the potential for a debt jubilee or other unconventional economic measures.

Timestamps: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:00:40 – Powell’s Reasons to Stay 00:02:51 – Eccles Historical Precedent 00:04:08 – Fed Re-engineering Ideas 00:06:13 – Internal Fed Dissent 00:08:17 – Advice for Kevin Warsh 00:09:35 – Liquidity Crisis Strategies 00:11:33 – Real Estate Credit Woes 00:14:33 – Recession Thresholds? 00:17:13 – Job Losses Analysis 00:19:26 – Credit Market Warnings 00:21:19 – Midterm Election Risks 00:23:08 – Policy Tools Discussion 00:25:12 – AI-Proofing Career Advice 00:26:49 – Monitoring MOVE Index 00:27:48 – Concluding Thoughts

Guest:

Danielle DiMartino Booth — CEO & Chief Strategist for QI Research Danielle DiMartino Booth is CEO and Chief Strategist for Quill Intelligence LLC, a research and analytics firm.

DiMartino Booth set out to launch a Research Revolution, redefining how market intelligence is conceived and delivered, with the goal of not only guiding portfolio managers but promoting financial literacy. To build QI, she brought together a core team of investing veterans in analyzing the trends and providing critical analysis of what drives the markets.

Since its inception, commentary and data from DiMartino Booth's The Daily Feather have appeared in other financial sources such as Bloomberg, CNBC, Fox Business, Institutional Investor, Yahoo Finance, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Seeking Alpha, TD Ameritrade, TheStreet.com, and more.

A global thought leader on monetary policy, economics, and finance, DiMartino Booth founded Quill Intelligence in 2018. She is the author of FED UP: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America (Portfolio, Feb 2017), a full-time columnist for Bloomberg View, a business speaker, and a commentator frequently featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, Fox Business News, BNN Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance and other major media outlets.

Before Quill, DiMartino Booth spent nine years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, serving as Advisor to President Richard W. Fisher throughout the financial crisis until his retirement in 2015. Her work at the Fed focused on financial stability and the efficacy of unconventional monetary policy.

DiMartino Booth began her career in New York at Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where she worked in the fixed income, public equity, and private equity markets. DiMartino Booth earned her BBA as a College of Business Scholar at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University. X Substack Website YouTube

📈 The Competent Investor Markets, macro, and the minds that move money.

Website — Full episodes, charts, heatmaps, and guest profiles. RSS Feed — Subscr

More from The Competent Investor

Oct 21, 2026

I sat down with Matthew Piepenburg, Partner at Von Greyerz Gold Switzerland and author of Gold Matters, for a conversation that ranged from French riots to the COMEX silver squeeze. What struck me most was his framing of today's gold setup as fundamentally stronger than the 1970s bull market.

Oct 19, 2026

I've had Rory Johnston on before, but this conversation felt different. The oil market Rory describes isn't just tight—it's structurally broken in ways we've never seen.

Oct 16, 2026

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Asset Management, argues that the US economy is trapped in a self-perpetuating doom loop driven by massive deficits and rising interest rates, which he believes will inevitably lead to a sovereign debt crisis or hyperinflation. He explains that as the Federal Reserve raises rates to combat persistent inflation, the government's interest expense balloons—potentially consuming half or all of tax revenue within years—forcing even larger deficits that fuel more inflation.

Oct 15, 2026

AJ Signal, a former military strategist and current geopolitical risk advisor, outlines a framework for predicting conflict by monitoring five logistical signals that nations cannot easily fake: medical mobility, energy, finance, and munitions. He explains how, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the movement of blood banks to the front line served as an undeniable indicator of imminent war, because the cold-chain logistics for blood are too complex to be a bluff. Applying this lens today, he observes the U.S. military moving blood supplies into both Europe and the Asia-Pacific, which, combined with other indicators, suggests preparations for a potential ground operation against Iran.

Oct 14, 2026

Michael Pento, President and Founder of Pento Portfolio Strategies, joins Tom Bodrovics to discuss his increasingly cautious market outlook. Pento’s model currently sits in sectors three and four, indicating stasis or slight reflation, but he anticipates a shift to sectors one and two by 2027. He has neutralized his portfolio for the first time since December 2021, reflecting his be Pento argues that the Federal Reserve is raising short-term rates while long-term rates are also rising, creating pressure on a "triumvirate of bubbles"—credit, real estate, and equities. He attributes this to inflation remaining above target for over five years, foreign creditors abandoning US Treasuries in favor of gold, and the unwinding of the yen carry trade. The US savings rate is near historic lows, limiting demand for government debt while deficits remain massive. He warns that AI-related debt issuance, potentially a trillion dollars this year, is fueling inflation and competing with Treasuries for scarce savings. He dismisses the idea that renewed quantitative easing could solve the problem, calling such measures palliative and likely to trigger a stagflationary environment.

See all episodes →