Judy Shelton, a senior U.S. official who is being vetted for a job on the board of the Federal Reserve, told the Financial Times that the the central bank wields undemocratic, Soviet-style powers over markets.

Said Shelton: “How can a dozen, slightly less than a dozen, people meeting eight times a year, decide what the cost of capital should be versus some kind of organically, market supply determined rate? The Fed is not omniscient. They don’t know what the right rate should be. How could anyone?”

She added: “If the success of capitalism depends on someone being smart enough to know what the rate should be on everything… we’re doomed. We might as well resurrect Gosplan.”