Chris Waller is a governor of America's Federal Reserve, where he has sat on the board since 2020. He has worked in the Fed system since 2009 and was previously an academic. He is a monetary-policy expert.
In 2022 many prominent forecasters, including Olivier Blanchard, a former chief economist of the IMF, predicted that recent rises in interest rates would cause a surge in unemployment. Waller vocally disagreed and was proved right. In 2025 he foresaw weakness in the labour market that struck in July, causing the Fed to take a doveish turn. Over a long period his judgment looks equally sound: compared with colleagues he was doveish in the 2010s, when the economy was weak, and hawkish after the pandemic, as inflation was taking off.
Waller is considered the technocratic alternative to Kevin Hassett as Donald Trump's nominee for the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Like Hassett, he wants lower interest rates, but there is little doubt he is making his case in good faith. Under his leadership the Fed's independence would be secure.
In October 2025 Waller alarmed bankers by suggesting more firms might gain access to the Federal Reserve's payment rails, in the context of cryptocurrency regulation. He later walked back the statement, saying holders of such Fed accounts would still need bank charters.
Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.