The lone factor that credit agencies have not criticized has been the credibility of the Federal Reserve. With the criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, that might now change.Ken Cedeno/Reuters

Yali N’Diaye is a former financial reporter with Market News International who covered financial regulatory reform after the global financial crisis, including reliance on rating agencies.

A criminal investigation of the head of the central bank, which is happening in the United States, sets a new type of precedent.

As Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said himself this month in an unexpected Sunday night video: “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions, or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”

This war on the Fed, in tandem with U.S. President Donald Trump’s lust for Greenland, and the ensuing fallout, has caused investors to dump American bonds.

Tuesday morning, U.S. 30-year Treasury yields were up by about seven basis points to 4.91 per cent. (A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point, and bond yields move inversely with prices.) And over the last two trading days, those yields have been up by 12 basis points, the biggest jump over such a period since China-U.S........

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