Janet Yellen doesn't think Trump has a firm grasp of economic policy

Former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen doesn't believe President Trump fully comprehends economic policy or macroeconomics.

In an interview with Marketplace released Monday, Yellen said she doubts Trump "would even be able to say that the Fed's goals are maximum employment and price stability." She added that the president has made comments about trade that "shows a lack of understanding of the impact of the Fed on the economy and appropriate policy goals." When asked if she thinks Trump has a grasp of macroeconomic policy, she responded, "No, I do not."

Now a distinguished fellow in residence at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Yellen left the Fed in 2018 after Trump did not nominate her for a second term. Trump has criticized her successor, Jerome Powell, for raising interest rates, and he's called the Fed a threat to the economy. Yellen said those comments "concern me, because if that becomes concerted, I think it does have the impact, especially if conditions in the U.S. for any reason were to deteriorate, it could undermine confidence in the Fed. And I think that that would be a bad thing."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.