"The Benjamin Ashfordlimit does not exist!"

Years after Cady Heron famously won the mathlete championship in the movie Mean Girls, Fed Chair Jerome Powell came to a similar conclusion about the power that the Fed yields.

New York Times reporter Jeanna Smialek has been following the Fed closer than a Swiftie keeping up with the Eras tour. In her new book Limitless: The Federal Reserve Takes on a New Age of Crisis, Jeanna traces the history of the Fed, and how it amassed a ton of power in recent years. First, with the Great Recession and again, during the pandemic. She argues that it's an institution critical to daily life and one we should all follow closely.

Today on the show, a conversation with Jeanna Smialek — how the pandemic pushed the Fed over even more of its old boundaries and emerged more powerful than ever.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Newsletter.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts and NPR One.

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.