Posted on 12/12/2019 11:47:31 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON - After three interest rate cuts and a fresh round of record highs for U.S. stock markets, has President Donald Trump lost interest in the Federal Reserve?
A count of tweets from Trump about U.S. monetary policy suggest a detente may have taken hold between an elected leader who has lambasted Fed officials with insults like “clueless” and “boneheads” and a central bank whose rate cuts have helped buffer the economy from the administration’s own unpredictable trade and tariff policies.
On Wednesday, the Fed left interest rates unchanged at the end of a two-day policy meeting, and signaled it was likely to keep them at the current level until at least 2021 - after the Nov. 3 presidential election in which Trump hopes to win a second term.
Though the Republican president has suggested rates need to continue falling, so far there has been no reaction from @realDonaldTrump to the latest Fed decision, and indeed the pace and tenor of his Twitter war with the central bank has eased since the Fed made what appears to be its final rate cut for now, in October.
He tweeted about the Fed only twice in November and has done so three times this month. The latest were related to complaints about metal imports from Brazil and Argentina and his long-running grousing about the strength of the U.S. dollar.
Trump’s language has also been more tempered of late, including a reference to his “very good & cordial meeting” with Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Nov. 18, a session that came after the central bank had begun signaling it was unlikely to lower rates any further.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Better late boneheads than never boneheads.
Stock market’s up, unemployment’s down, GDP growth low but positive. Any normal cycle the opposition wouldn’t even bother running a candidate.
The long term problem is that the economy is weak compared to the first half of the last century. It doesn’t seem to me that raising interest rates to an acceptable level for savers is possible without causing a severe downturn. We are too far in debt, too taxed and too regulated. Trump has helped but we need more economic liberty.
This has always been sound and fury about mostly nothing. The Fed makes a good pretend villain.
Short rates need to about 2.5% or there will be no way to prime the pump if the economy goes into recession. We’ll be stuck with a negative interest rate option otherwise.
They don’t seem to be running a real candidate... at least not from the current batch.
The Creature from Jekyll Island is just keeping its powder dry...
“It doesn’t seem to me that raising interest rates to an acceptable level for savers is possible without causing a severe downturn.”
Only the shortest of rates can be set by the Fed. Like overnight lending rates.
Longer rates are determined by market forces. And since the rise of China there appears to be a dollar savings glut that is keeping down the long rates that savers depend upon.
Your Title sir, offends me.
Bonehead
I knew it was one of the loser media outfits. Rooters sucks.
The Creature would like a short rate of 2.5% to 5% in order to have its primary tool for breaking out of a recession.
The current rate is 1.5% to 1.75%.
The Creature is Deep State and wants Trump gone. It’s exercising patience.
LOL
The fed seems to think that economic growth causes inflation, which is absurd.
So you’re okay with negative interest rates when we next go into recession? Because that is what will happen if the Fed has no room to drop rates.
“The Creature is Deep State and wants Trump gone.”
A favorite tinfoil fantasy.
Partisan Fed board reverses course, caves to Trump's demand to cut rates".
Think 1996 with the GOP.
Same thing, same result.
Such a target rich environment but so little time in the day to properly excoriate all that deserve verbal thrashings.
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