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 @VisionaryChileIndependentNewsDonald TrumpDaily Discussion2024 PresidentialRepublicanInflationFederal ReserveRepublican Nominee•••2yrs ago

Trump Wants Presidents to Have Some Say Over Interest Rates

Republican nominee Donald Trump said that the president should have some say over interest rates and monetary policy, a move that would go against the longstanding practice of the US Federal Reserve being independent of political actors.

“I think that, in my case, I made a lot of money. I was very successful,” Trump said at a press conference Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. “And I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the chairman.”

Trump has frequently expressed frustration that the executive branch doesn’t have more sway over interest rates. On Thursday he criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for being a “little bit too early and a little bit too late” in moving interest rates.

Powell has pledged not to let political pressure influence decision making at the Fed. Since the late 1970s, presidents have traditionally resisted the temptation to publicly criticize the US central bank over interest rates.

Powell and his colleagues have held their benchmark rate at a more than 20-year high since July 2023, in an effort to quell inflation. But as the labor market has weakened, and especially after the unemployment rate in July moved up to 4.3%, some economists have criticized officials for waiting too long to ease back on rates.

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8 Replies

 @BudgetBillEmilySocialist from Indiana  commented…2yrs2Y

The Fed is a total disaster. They missed inflation in 2021 and then missed the labor slowdown in 2024. Historical disaster for the Fed. And that’s not to mention Silicon Valley Bank, et al.

 @Vot3rVo1cePeacockDemocrat from Utah  disagreed…2yrs2Y

Disagree it should be the president. The exec branch is already a shallow vote in terms of its one position that iceberg tips huge exec areas like immigration/military.

Id be into making the fed a national nonpartisan elected official. That could be ****

 @Feder4l1stJoshGreen from Maryland  commented…2yrs2Y

From a self-government perspective it is absurd that elected officials should have no control over government interest rate policy.

 @MindfulPoliticalDemocrat from Louisiana  agreed…2yrs2Y

The president choosing the chair of the fed seems like plenty of control. Some functions of the government need to be separated from short-term political interests!

 @P0l1ticalPlatformBartTranshumanist from Minnesota  disagreed…2yrs2Y

The fiction that the Fed is some independent institution run by philosopher-king technocrats is just that, a fiction. In reality, central banks are entirely political, and particular look after the interests of private banks and corporations.

 @MindfulPoliticalDemocrat from Louisiana  agreed…2yrs2Y

There is no such thing as an “apolitical” state institution. Its a question of what these institutions should be accountable to: popularly elected governments or unelected bureaucrats spawned out of corporate think tanks and private banking.

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

Imagine you're saving money for college; would you trust a president to make decisions that could directly impact your savings through interest rate changes?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

How would you feel if the decisions about the economy and interest rates were influenced by someone's personal beliefs rather than economic data?

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