Lisa Cook has excellent penmanship. The “L” in her signature on her July 2nd, 2021 mortgage application contains a distinctive and graceful loop. It perfectly matches the same “L” in her June 18, 2021 mortgage application for a separate residence. The first signature secured a loan for the future Federal Reserve Governor’s primary residence in Michigan. The second signature may change history.

Less than a year after signing two separate mortgage applications promising lenders to live in two separate homes as her “primary residence,” the Senate confirmed her in a party line vote. Biden’s choice, Cook was a brazenly political appointee, and she made no secret of her intent to use her position as a tool for social justice.

According to an Aug. 15 criminal referral made by the U.S. Federal Housing FHFA, the University of Michigan Credit Union issued the first mortgage loan for $203,000. That application required Cook to certify she would, “use the Property as Borrower’s principal residence within 60 days after execution of this Security Instrument and shall continue to occupy the Property as Borrower’s principal residence for at least one year after the date of occupancy.” The Bank Fund Staff Credit Union issued the second mortgage loan for $540,000. It contained an identical certification requiring Cook to occupy the property within 60 days of the agreement and for at least one year after signing.

The FHFA apparently noticed Cook promised two different lenders she would live in two separate places during roughly the same year. It further noticed that in Sept. of 2022, Cook listed the Georgia property for rent. Furthermore, “a review of Cook’s federal government financial disclosures for calendar years 2022 and 2023 indicate that she has not disclosed any rental income for this address.”

Cook is known to be a loyal vote for the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who President Trump faults for the current prevailing interest rates. Like many presidents before him, Trump wants the Federal Reserve to facilitate economic growth by lowering the cost of borrowing. He has seized upon the unfolding scandal to call for her resignation.

If Cook resigns, it will follow on the heels of the sudden and unexplained resignation of another Biden appointee to the Board of Governors. Former Governor Adriana Kugler, a Biden appointee, resigned effective Aug. 8. But in Kugler’s case, her term would not have expired until Jan. 31, 2026. A full term of service for a member of the Board is 14 years but someone appointed to fill a vacancy created before a term expires can only serve the rest of that term.

Some believe that what President Trump really wants is “yield curve control.” The Fed’s power to lower interest rates is limited to the rate it charges banks for extremely short term (overnight) borrowing. While this can influence longer-term interest rates, those rates are largely set by market forces, not the Federal Reserve. To achieve the broader interest rate cuts the president wants, the Federal Reserve will need to buy bonds on the open market. While that sounds innocuous, it will have profound effects. The Federal Reserve controls the presses at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. It has the power to bring money into existence and use it to buy bonds. When the Fed buys these bonds, it’s effectively loaning printed money to the United States Treasury to fund operations. In other words, the money press will go “brrr” as it cranks out billions, if not trillions, of freshly printed dollars to fund deficit spending.

Would this cause more inflation? It might. But it might not. The president is betting that the economy will grow so quickly that the stock of goods and services will expand fast enough to prevent inflation from raging. If Trump succeeds in prompting the Fed to finance government spending, historians may look back at Lisa Cook’s second mortgage application as a distant cause of Trump’s securing enough votes to make it happen.