Hey, hope you’ve had a great week.

The country is starting to thaw from last week’s huge snowstorms and bitter arctic chill, and plenty of parents are getting caught up on work they missed with little ones home. We talked with those parents in today’s newsletter, and we’ll take a closer look at Super Bowl ads and chicken wing inflation ahead of a big sports weekend. All that and more — Money secrets! Budget-conscious Valentine’s candy! — down below.

First though, we must talk about the Trump administration. The country could have a new head of monetary policy in just a couple months, so let’s look back on the history of Federal Reserve chairs, and the presidents who seek to influence them.

— Tony Wagner, newsletter editor

After months of speculation about who will replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May, President Donald Trump announced last week that he was nominating former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh for the role. 

If confirmed, Warsh would become the 17th chair of the U.S. central bank, which is one of the most influential economic policy positions in the world. 

President Trump has made it clear that he wants the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. He has also taken unprecedented steps to exert pressure on the agency, such as repeatedly threatening to fire Jerome Powell and attempting to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her post. Just last month, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation of Jerome Powell, marking the first time in history a sitting Fed chair has been the subject of such a probe. 

“We've never seen anything like what Donald Trump has done in the previous year to the Federal Reserve,” said Peter Conti-Brown, an associate professor of financial regulation at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “And therefore, we've never seen anything like a nomination coming out of the context of this assault.”

As we’ve covered on “Marketplace,” Federal Reserve independence is a key tenant of U.S. central banking. But there is a long history of presidents trying to make their mark on the economy through their selection of new Fed chairs. 

“One of the most significant examples of a new Fed Chair being chosen by the president, and marking sort of a dramatic shift in Fed policy, is President Nixon's choice of Arthur Burns,” said Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.

“Arthur Burns was someone who had known President Nixon through various phases of his career,” said Jennifer Burns, a professor of history at Stanford University. 

Burns became Fed chair in 1970. By 1974, the interest rate was 11% . But Nixon put pressure on Burns to keep interest rates low.

“Which had the unfortunate effect of really helping inflation become more entrenched in the economy and more sustained,” said Jennifer Burns. 

It took a new Fed Chair, Paul Volcker, to take those painful steps of hiking interest rates to 20% to get inflation back down. 

Other presidents have walked right up to the line.

This week, I’ve been referring to my seven year old, William, as “my assistant.” That’s because he’s been around a lot as I do my job.

“You know how to find those letters so fast,” he said, as I typed in my password. 

Baltimore, where I live, was hit by about a foot of snow last weekend, part of the giant storm that hit a huge chunk of the continental U.S. Public schools here have been closed all week. My husband and I split up child care and have tried to do our jobs with the kids around. (It was mostly Will. Our seven-month-old goes to day care, which was open most of the week.) I’m one of the lucky ones: I can work from home. But for working parents, snow days become this jumble of work and parenting where you feel like you do nothing well. That means trying to do two full-time jobs at once comes with all sorts of costs.

“It's been a bad week. I would say it's been a comically bad week,” said Matthew Johnson, a father of three based in Washington, D.C. He manages a team of developers for a tech company, and his wife works in data visualization. When D.C. public schools were closed earlier this week, they took turns working and caring for their children, which meant taking paid time off.

“We're just burning through PTO while at the same time putting in hours to work to just try to keep — not even the ship running, but just making sure the ship doesn't sink,” he said. 

They’re still paying for child care, even though they weren’t able to access it much of the week. Johnson said there’s an emotional toll, too.

“I love my kids, but it is such a constant-ness that it burns through my patience,” said Johnson. “I find myself getting shorter and shorter with the kids, so there’s a mental cost.” 

How much do you share with your partner about your finances?

Sometimes, a little privacy starts to look a lot like a secret. And secrets can turn into big problems, especially when it comes to money. “This Is Uncomfortable” host Reema Khrais explored this slippery slope on this week’s episode of our podcast about life and how money messes with it. Here’s what she found: 

Trust is the foundation: Couples therapist Jeff Guenther said he often talks with couples not about money, but their feelings around it, and how they communicate with each other. 

He suggests this big question to start: “How can I have a conversation with you or a feeling of safety in this relationship, so that I don't feel judged and criticized and condescended and looked down upon?”

Financial distrust often comes from past trauma: Once you’ve established that base of trust, you can start investigating where negative associations around money come from.

“Typically when somebody is feeling betrayed because their partner isn't being financially transparent, 9 times out of 10, it's because of financial trauma,” Guenther said. “And so we need to be able to hold the space to be non-judgmental and understanding and curious and compassionate about where the financial trauma comes from so that it can be healed.”

Think about the flip side: Honesty and morality come up a lot in this conversation, but what about privacy? How much can we expect in our relationships?

“Do we really expect complete transparency? How many spouses do you know that'll be totally 100% comfortable handing their phone to their spouse and saying, ‘Go ahead, scroll through my texts, my posts, my DMs,’” said divorce lawyer Randy Kessler “Everything's a matter of degree, but certainly there's some things you wanna keep private, you wanna write in your diary, you wanna go to a therapist where you can talk freely.”

Got Valentine’s plans? How about “BUY N BULK,” then “COOK FOR 2”?

Sweethearts announced it’s mixing “love in this economy” messages in with its usual assortment this year. The chalky, heart-shaped candies will bear slogans like “SPLIT RENT,” “CAR POOL” and other slogans maker Spangler Candy Company says reflect its cost-conscious customer base.