Muscat Daily

Trump says US Fed ‘out of control’ but won’t fire Powell

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Washington, US – US President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the US central bank on Thursday, saying it was ‘out of control’ in raising interest rates but that he had no plans to dismiss US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

Trump blamed the Fed for the global stocks rout that continued on Thursday for a second day amid concerns about rising interest rates.

“It is a correction that I think it is caused by the Federal Reserve, with interest rates,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think the Fed is out of control.”

However, asked about Powell’s future, Trump said, “I’m not going to fire him.”

Trump named Powell to lead the central bank but can only fire him for cause.

Earlier in the day, Trump told the Fox & Friends television broadcast that the central bank was ‘making a big mistake’ by being ‘too aggressive’ in raising rates.

However, he acknowledg­ed higher rates helped savers.

The comments followed his strongest criticism of the Fed late on Wednesday when he said the central bank had ‘gone crazy’.

US shares fell sharply on Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 800 points in its worst tumble since February.

The rout caused a domino effect worldwide, with losses spreading to Asia and Europe on Thursday as investors remained concerned about rising rates - which would send more buyers out of equities and into bonds - as well as the impact of Trump’s trade conflict with China on corporate profits.

After a roller coaster ride on Thursday, the Dow lost another 545 points for a drop of more than two per cent. London also lost nearly two per cent, Frankfurt fell 1.5 per cent, and Tokyo plunged nearly four per cent.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow on Thursday said Trump’s opinions had no weight on the Fed’s actions.

“We know the Fed is independen­t. The President is not dictating policy to the Fed. He didn’t say anything remotely like that,” he said on CNBC.

And Kudlow said the Fed was managing ‘the transition from ultra, ultra easy money...to something more normal’, by raising rates gradually.

Trump has repeatedly touted the spate of Wall Street records as proof of the success of his economic programme, including his confrontat­ional trade strategy, and criticised the Fed for raising the benchmark interest rate - three times this year - saying it would undermine his efforts. In fact it is largely his policies that are behind the changes: Tax cuts and increased government spending are expected to juice the economy, adding to the Fed’s justificat­ion to raise interest rates.

Meanwhile, trade conflicts raise costs for companies, which could hit the bottom line in quarterly earnings - something analysts said had helped prompt Wednesday’s sell-off.

The attacks on the Fed are another example of Trump breaking with recent norms. The Fed is an independen­t body and presidents in recent decades have avoided commenting publicly on its actions.

Powell has brushed off the comments, saying officials do not pay attention to politics.

“This is just who we are and I think who we will always be, which is, we’re a group who - we’re quite removed from the political process,” Powell said in a recent interview.

“And we just try to do the right thing for the medium and longer term for the country.”

Defending the Fed, Internatio­nal Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that raising interest rates was justified ‘for those economies that are showing much improved growth, inflation that is picking up...unemployme­nt that is extremely low’.

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