The guy can't help himself. Hopefully he doesn't do anything stupid by trying to remove Powell from the Fed Reserve chairman. Rates have to go up. If you want to continue to sustain the growth, you have to raise the rates so that people can take those necessary pauses so that inflation doesn't go thru the roof.

Also, older American's will need the higher rates for their retirement portfolios so that they don't overexpose themselves to risk. I doubt the Dems capitalize on this, but they could paint a compelling picture where Trump may end up being a 2nd Nixon who bullied his Fed chairman to keep low interest rates despite warnings that inflation was going to heat up 'bigly'...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-steps..._lead_pos1

Quote:President Trump escalated his attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying the head of the nation’s central bank threatened U.S. economic growth and appeared to enjoy raising interest rates.

In an interview Tuesday with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump acknowledged the independence the Fed has long enjoyed in setting economic policy, while also making clear he was intentionally sending a direct message to Mr. Powell that he wanted lower interest rates.

“Every time we do something great, he raises the interest rates,” Mr. Trump said, adding that Mr. Powell “almost looks like he’s happy raising interest rates.” The president declined to elaborate, and a spokeswoman for the Fed declined to comment.

Mr. Trump said it was “too early to say, but maybe” he regrets nominating Mr. Powell.

Fed officials have raised their benchmark rate three times this year, most recently in September to a range between 2% and 2.25%, and most officials expect to raise it again at their December meeting. Mr. Powell has said the Fed wants to raise rates at least to a so-called neutral level that seeks to neither spur nor slow economic growth.

He's not exactly wrong. The St. Louis Fed Reserve President said back in June he feared raising the rates too quickly would slow the economy. The 2018 inflation rate is running .15 points above the 2017 rate. The Fed has raised interest rates 3 times this year with another hike likely in december and has already proposed 3 hikes in 2019. Inflation is slowly increasing and it appears that the Fed is being very aggressive with the interest rate hikes. It would be nice if the Fed would pump the breaks a bit since it appears that although inflation is increasing, it's very close to the 2% threshold and doesn't appear to be increasing at an accelerated rate.

True, inflation is still pretty tame. However, we also need to keep in mind that the rates must increase nonetheless. Maybe Powell could slow it down some - but he can't keep them where they are at now. You will need the wiggle room with the higher interest rates in order to combat a future recession. We will have another one in the future.

And again, retirees need the increased rates to help take the excess risk out of their portfolios so that they don't loose a bunch of capital when the risk becomes real.

He's also said he won't replace Powell. He's far from the first president to question what the Fed was doing.

And while I support an independent Fed, criticism and making sure it isn't indifferent to the plight of normal Americans can be useful.

(10-24-2018 07:54 AM)bullet Wrote:  He's also said he won't replace Powell. He's far from the first president to question what the Fed was doing.

And while I support an independent Fed, criticism and making sure it isn't indifferent to the plight of normal Americans can be useful.

They should be in communication - that I agree on. Communicating in the papers is not wise in this instance - IMHO.

One testament to the weakness of the Obama "recovery" is that for basically a decade interest rates have been locked at a level that should almost guarantee white hot growth and inflation, and it hasn't happened. Another is that Obama took over at the absolute bottom of a recession, so that natural economic forces should have propelled rapid growth, and it didn't happen. Interest rates are still too low, but this economy is still very fragile. I'm more bearish than bullish at this point.

(10-24-2018 07:45 AM)miko33 Wrote:  True, inflation is still pretty tame. However, we also need to keep in mind that the rates must increase nonetheless. Maybe Powell could slow it down some - but he can't keep them where they are at now. You will need the wiggle room with the higher interest rates in order to combat a future recession. We will have another one in the future.

And again, retirees need the increased rates to help take the excess risk out of their portfolios so that they don't loose a bunch of capital when the risk becomes real.

I agree that they need to come up, but think that after years of suppressed rates and QE, raising rates at this pace is almost like cutting a junkie off cold-turkey. It may work, but it's painful.

Trying to 'bully' people is what Trump does. People who 'beat' Trump do so by being right and sticking to their guns... and Trump usually respects them for it... but it's how he vets people's analysis.

Much like Denzell Washington in the Titan's movie when speaking to the smiling kid about playing football... Took someone with good intentions but no conviction and made him be 'convicted'.