President Trump turned up his public complaints directed at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as the central bank eyes more interest rate hikes.
“Every time we do something great, he raises the interest rates,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Tuesday night. The president added that Powell “almost looks like he’s happy raising interest rates.”
The president’s criticisms place the Fed in an awkward position while the stock market faces serious turbulence and Trump looks for someone to potentially blame for that. Nevertheless, former Fed vice chair and Princeton University economics professor Alan Blinder doesn’t believe the Fed will bend to Trump’s will.
“My guess is, if anything, those kinds of words coming out of the White House will stiffen the Fed’s back rather than have it roll over and play dead with the White House,” Blinder told Yahoo Finance’s Final Round on Tuesday.
Update 10/25/18: Current Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida, making his first public remarks, said that he believes “some further gradual adjustment in the federal funds rate will be appropriate.”
Blinder also said that the public attacks, while unusual, are “not a big risk” because “the markets realize, as most Americans realize, that this president just shoots from the mouth without getting his brain engaged first. So I don’t think — I don’t think they’re taking it that seriously.”
He added: “They will start taking it seriously if he backs up any of these words, which have been wild really, with actions, actions that are hostile to the Fed.”
Trump didn’t explicitly express regret nominating Powell during his Journal interview. But the president did say he thought “he was supposed to be a low-interest-rate guy”.
He hasn’t indicated if he would try and fire Powell — and it’s not clear he even could.
The Federal Reserve Act gives the president power to remove Fed governors, but only “for cause.” It doesn’t specifically outline how the president could remove the chairman.
“One notable and very good feature of the Trump administration, surprising to me and to many people really, is that he’s made very good appointments to the Fed,” said Blinder. “That would be someplace he could really muck up things at the Fed, but he’s not done that by a large margin.”
The attacks ‘will stiffen the Fed’s back’
Powell has yet to respond to the attacks. He says interest rate hikes are data-driven decisions, not political ones. Another raise is expected in December, with an additional three or four hikes predicted for next year.
If the Fed decides to scale back its raises, Blinder believes that it will be the data that guides them, not politics.
“There will certainly be some commentary that the Fed was cowed by President Trump,” Blinder said of the prospect that the Fed changes course. “I doubt that they will be.”
Kristin Myers is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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