The Trump economy is making a huge bet

A clue to why he wants to take over the Fed

On October 7, 1974, 850 federal officials quietly checked into motel rooms in six communities in the New York City borough of Queens and the Long Island suburbs.

The next afternoon, they gathered in small groups near the 104 branches of Franklin National Bank, the nation’s 20th largest bank. “‘We began getting calls at about 1:30 or 2 PM from branch managers who said they had spotted some suspicious people congregating outside,’ said Arthur G. Perfall, a senior Franklin vice president. ‘Our security people began checking out the calls, but we soon realized something was up more than a massive holdup.’”

Something was up: Minutes before the bank branches closed at 3 PM, the feds entered, flashed their credentials and said they were conducting a routine bank examination, as Newsday’s business editor Daniel Kahn wrote later that year. But after 3 PM, the…