Donald Trump is trying to get his Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to quit. Just as he harassed former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not being willing to break the law for him, the president has started going after Powell. None of the previous U.S. presidents have respected the independence of the Fed, so what does Trump know about running the Fed? Not much, as his morning tweet showed.
POTUS fired former Fed chair Janet Yellen for being too short, he tried to get two wildly inappropriate nominees on the Fed’s board, and then there has been Trump himself. The president considered appointing daughter Ivanka Trump as the chair, does not read, and does not listen to his own governmental experts. Yet, Trump has been convinced he knows best, as this tweet showed:
‘If the Fed had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points, and GDP would have been well over 4% instead of 3%…with almost no inflation. Quantitative tightening was a killer, should have done the exact opposite!’
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said, The Los Angeles Times reported:
‘If the central bank is not independent then people may well think that monetary policy decisions follow political advice rather than objective assessment of the economic outlook. Central banks ought to be left free to choose what is the best way to comply with (their mandates).’
Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan claimed:
Central bank independence is extremely important (and I’m) convinced that central banks should stick to a relatively narrow mandate. Both go together.’
South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago noted:
‘The clearer the mandate of a central bank, the easier it is to hold a central bank accountable.’
Twitter world went crazy. Check out some of our favorites below:
