Why the Fed can't please the president

The smartest insight and analysis on the Federal Reserve's predicament, rounded up from around the web:

Jerome Powell.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web:

President Trump this week intensified a campaign to "bend the Federal Reserve to his will," said Binyamin Appelbaum at The New York Times, announcing plans to appoint a fierce partisan to the central bank's board. Unlike the Fed's current governors, Stephen Moore is not a professional economist, but a frequent pundit and onetime editorial writer. Moore co-authored a book called Trumponomics and shares the president's view that "high interest rates are still smothering the economy." He has called the Fed's chairman, Jerome Powell, "totally incompetent," and criticized the Fed in a series of Wall Street Journal op-eds, which may have helped him get Trump's nod. Though the Federal Reserve said there would be no more planned interest-rate increases in 2019, Moore would go even further, bringing interest rates down from already-low levels to ignite the economy. That could give Trump the short-term economic boost he craves, potentially at the expense of a painful crash in the future.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us