In 2008 — the last time the global economy was on the brink of collapse — the U.S. Federal Reserve opened up its wallet and began buying up all kinds of financial assets, such as subprime mortgage instruments, that had suddenly become too risky for the private banks to handle.  The Fed spent several trillion dollars acquiring assets and providing loans, all on its own initiative, without independent actions of Congress. Twelve years later, in 2020, in response to a global health and economic crisis ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fed is once again wielding its independent financial might to try to prop up a floundering market, on an even larger scale than in 2008.  Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the Center for Disease Control, a similarly technocratic, but differently structured, federal agency finds itself mired in political infighting with other cabinet agencies and the White House.  Under intense pressure from the White House, the CDC has pulled coronavirus infection guidance for schools, and can no longer post its own data about new infections.   Mitchel Abolafia is a Professor Of Public Affairs and Policy at State University of New York at Albany, and the author of the book “Steward of the Market.”