Gary Cohn and Glenn Hutchins are correct in saying the Cares Act tapped the Federal Reserve as a partner in its fiscal response to the pandemic (“The Fed’s New Mission to Save the Economy,” op-ed, April 7). But the Fed’s engagement in fiscal actions began when the Ben Bernanke Fed decided to purchase mortgage-backed securities to aid the housing market in 2008. Charles Plosser, then president of the Philadelphia Fed, warned that the Fed was “substituting credit-allocation policies for monetary policies.”

The Cares Act has raised the Fed’s fiscal actions to an entirely new level, further blurring the distinction between the Fed and the Treasury, as well as the distinction between monetary policy and fiscal policy. Mr. Plosser and a number of other Federal Reserve Bank presidents wanted to preserve this distinction. The chance that this will ever return now is minuscule. It raises new concerns about Fed independence.

This doesn’t mean the Fed shouldn’t be involved in the effort to help small businesses and households. However, this should be done by making loans through banks on good credit, not by directly interfering in the money and capital markets.

Dan Thornton