There's growing concern about whether the Fed can really maintain its independence these days. One prominent financial analyst from a major media outlet raised an important question: is the central bank truly at risk of losing that autonomy? And honestly, people's worries don't seem unfounded. When you think about the pressures—political influence, market expectations, policy constraints—it raises real questions about how much independence the Fed actually has in practice. This matters way more than most realize, especially for those tracking macro trends and market cycles.