Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s unprecedented tariffs, particularly on China, and recent attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell caused alarm among some of his top advisers and America’s biggest CEOs, who warned of financial chaos and store shelves that could go bare, people familiar with the conversations said. The warnings — and the markets’ own volatility this week — seemed to have broken through. Trump backed down Tuesday from his threats to try to remove Powell from the job, telling reporters in the Oval Office: “I have no intention of firing him.” That prompted sighs of relief on Wall Street. A...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has “no intention” of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before his term leading the U.S. central bank ends next year. “None whatsoever,” Trump said in the Oval Office when asked to clarify that he did not seek Powell’s removal. “Never did.” The comment represents a dramatic shift for Trump, who has recently ramped up his rhetoric against Powell and declined to rule out the possibility of taking the unprecedented step of firing him. U.S. stock futures rose sharply across major indexes following Trump’s latest remarks. Trump, who has heaped pressure on the...

If Donald Trump is upset about higher interest rates, he should stop doing just about everything he can to undermine the U.S. economy in the eyes of the world. As the U.S. becomes a riskier place to do business because of tariffs and fiscal uncertainty, and the independence of the central bank comes under threat from the president, people will demand higher yields to make buying U.S. sovereign debt worth their while. Maybe you think Trump’s trade policy has merit or the Federal Reserve needs to be brought more firmly under the president’s control. That’s a separate question from how...

If the White House wanted a test of how firing Jerome Powell would go over in the markets, it succeeded on Monday. U.S. stocks and the dollar plunged while yields on long-term Treasurys climbed after President Trump renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve Chairman. Monday was the first full trading day for markets to absorb National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett’s comments Friday that the White House is studying if Mr. Powell can legally be fired. On Monday Mr. Trump demanded again that Mr. Powell make “pre-emptive” interest rate cuts to avoid a slowdown. Cue the meltdown in stocks,...

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose Monday as investors weighed concerns over tariffs and comments by President Donald Trump criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was 8 basis points higher at 4.401%. The 2-year Treasury yield was 1 basis point lower to 3.788%. One basis point is equal to 0.01%. Yields and prices move in opposite directions. The moves come after Trump on Friday levied another salvo at Powell for not lowering interest rates. The president vocalized his discontent with the Fed chair’s economic policy leadership during a question-and-answer session with reporters....

President Trump’s tariff war isn’t going well, with market ructions and evidence of a slowing economy. So it was probably inevitable that Mr. Trump would demand that the Federal Reserve ride to his rescue by cutting interest rates. The President took to social media Thursday morning to blast Fed Chairman Jerome Powell with his familiar nuance. “Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete ‘mess!’ Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Too...

Thank you for the introduction. I am looking forward to our conversation, Professor Rajan. First, I will briefly discuss the outlook for the economy and monetary policy. At the Fed, we are always focused on the dual-mandate goals given to us by Congress: maximum employment and stable prices. Despite heightened uncertainty and downside risks, the U.S. economy is still in a solid position. The labor market is at or near maximum employment. Inflation has come down a great deal but is running a bit above our 2 percent objective. Recent Economic Data Turning to the incoming data, we will get...

By opening the door wider to an interest-rate cut in September, the Federal Reserve is on a collision course with the presidential election. For a central bank that judiciously aspires to stay above the fray of partisan politics, confronting a potential policy shift around election time amounts to a lose-lose. Delivering a rate cut ahead of the election could rile up Republicans and former President Donald Trump, but withholding a needed reduction could undermine the economy and upset Democrats. The awkward optics give extra incentive for central bank officials in the coming weeks to set expectations for and explain the...

The April pronouncements of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at Stanford University have sparked a crucial discourse about the ramifications of mass immigration on the American economy. Powell's observations emphasized the significant role of immigrants, particularly within lower-paying sectors of the labor market, prompting economists to hastily reconsider their projections. The forecasts presented by the Congressional Budget Office (C.B.O.) paint a stark panorama: an astounding 3.3 million individuals entered the United States in 2023 alone, with similar figures anticipated for 2024. While some champion these statistics as heralds of economic expansion, the underlying reality is bleak. The majority of this...

Hidden Camera captures Principal Economist @federalreserve talking about Jerome Powell’s legacy as “somebody who held the line against like, Trump.” The influential agency responsible for maintaining a stable monetary system appears to not just be establishing interest rates, but to be setting policies for desired social outcomes. “Under Powell, the Fed has changed to think about equity issues, like racial issues, think about wealth inequality as part of the mandate, as part of the things we are following. Think about climate change.” Aurel Hizmo, Principal Economist at the Federal Reserve, who prior to working at the Fed was an Assistant...

James O’Keefe’s O’Keefe Media Group has released undercover footage of a Federal Reserve employee admitting to how Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sabotaged President Trump and wants to go down in history as “someone who held the line against Trump.” Principal Economist Aurel Hizmo, a self-proclaimed liberal, told an undercover journalist more about Powell’s hatred for Trump, saying, “As soon as he became Chair, Trump wanted him to lower interest rates. Because when you lower interest rates, it stimulates the economy, and Trump was President. He wanted to stimulate the economy, but he wouldn’t do it. And he started raising...

Hidden Camera captures Principal Economist @federalreserve talking about Jerome Powell’s legacy as “somebody who held the line against like, Trump.” The influential agency responsible for maintaining a stable monetary system appears to not just be establishing interest rates, but to be setting policies for desired social outcomes. “Under Powell, the Fed has changed to think about equity issues, like racial issues, think about wealth inequality as part of the mandate, as part of the things we are following. Think about climate change.” Aurel Hizmo, Principal Economist at the Federal Reserve, who prior to working at the Fed was an Assistant...

The Meltdown of Commercial Real EstateIn case you’ve still got money in a bank, Bloomberg is warning that defaults in commercial real estate loans could “topple” hundreds of US banks.Leaving taxpayers on the hook for trillions in losses.The note, by Senior Editor James Crombie, walks us through the festering hellscape that is commercial real estate.To set the mood, a new study predicts that nearly half of downtown Pittsburgh office space could be vacant in 4 years. Major cities like San Francisco are already sporting zombie-apocalypse downtowns, with abandoned office buildings baking in the sun.So what happened? The Fed’s yo-yo interest...

Trump Predicts the Fed Will Lower Rates to Help Democrats We also were keen to ask Trump if he thinks the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell will cut interest rates specifically to help Joe Biden (or another Democrat) win the general election. The former President said he does think that is how things will play out. "Yeah, I think they will,” he said, before taking a light dig at Powell. “I was never a big fan of this guy,” Trump told us, before casually pointing the finger at his own Treasury Secretary. “Steve Mnuchin recommended him, but I was...

Notwithstanding the lopsided opinions the editors of Time Magazine foist upon readers, the real Person of the Year is actually Man of the Year: the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell.One of the criteria Time Magazine uses for its choice is “who most shaped the headlines over the previous 12 months, for better or for worse.” (Emphasis added.) That seems like a narrow perspective from which to filter candidates. Still, per Google Trends, “Taylor Swift” may have been a more popular online search term than “Jerome Powell.”One wonders who was conducting those Google searches. Perhaps it was adoring girls...

ederal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged recent signs of cooling inflation, but said Thursday that the slowing in price increases was not enough yet to determine a trend and that the central bank would be “resolute” in its commitment to its 2% mandate. “Inflation is still too high, and a few months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal,” Powell said in prepared remarks for his speech at the Economic Club of New York. “We cannot yet know how long these lower readings...

VIDEOWhen the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell starts sounding like Jim Cramer then you know the American banking system is in deep deep trouble.

In response to your recent December news release statement concerning “Principles for Climate-Related Financial Risk Management for Large Financial Institutions” and request for public comments, I have the following comment to your board. The intended purpose of the Federal Reserve is formulating U.S. monetary policy through the control of currency and interest rates, as well as promoting financial stability through the regulating of financial institutions. If members of the Federal Reserve are so concerned about climate, environmental and energy policies, then I strongly suggest that those members resign from the Federal Reserve. These former members could then simply seek other...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, the central bank announced Wednesday. The Fed leader is isolating at his home and plans to work remotely, in accordance with COVID-19 guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Powell is vaccinated and boosted, according to the release. No further details on Powell’s illness were provided. Powell’s positive tests comes as the Fed faces the issue of inflation and an economic slowdown with the risk of a recession looming. The Fed chair was in Sweden last week to deliver remarks on central bank independence.

Jerome Powell, Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has silenced the calls for a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be issued in the near future, saying that the central bank has “not decided to proceed” with the issuance of a CBDC for the time being. "We do not see ourselves making that decision for some time," he said Tuesday, speaking remotely on a panel about the role of central banks in digital markets to global financial leaders and crypto regulation experts attending a conference in Paris. Powell indicated that the central bank would instead be working in collaboration...