AXIOS (Neil Irwin) - Trump gives blasé response to rate hike possibility
President Trump has spent much of his term bashing outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates enough. On Tuesday, he seemed surprisingly blasé about the possibility that incoming chair Kevin Warsh might end up raising them. Driving the news: A reporter on Tuesday noted that markets now think an interest rate hike this year is more likely than a cut and asked the president whether he thinks Warsh will deliver the lower rates that Trump has long demanded. - "I'm going to let him do what he wants to do," Trump said. "He's a very talented guy, he's going to be fine, he's going to do a good job." Between the lines: That's not how defenders of Fed independence would prefer a president phrase things. Once a Fed…
President Trump has spent much of his term bashing outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates enough. On Tuesday, he seemed surprisingly blasé about the possibility that incoming chair Kevin Warsh might end up raising them. Driving the news: A reporter on Tuesday noted that markets now think an interest rate hike this year is more likely than a cut and asked the president whether he thinks Warsh will deliver the lower rates that Trump has long demanded. - "I'm going to let him do what he wants to do," Trump said. "He's a very talented guy, he's going to be fine, he's going to do a good job." Between the lines: That's not how defenders of Fed independence would prefer a president phrase things. Once a Fed…Open
