Trump Ups Pressure on Fed, Seeking Rates of Zero ‘Or Less

  • President Donald Trump urged the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates to a level typically reserved for recessions or periods of persistently weak growth, suggesting that such a setting could allow the government to refinance Treasury debt at a lower cost.
  • The Fed should “get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less,” Trump said in an early Wednesday tweet that went beyond his previous attacks and demand for a cut of one percentage point.
  • “We should then start to refinance our debt. INTEREST COST COULD BE BROUGHT WAY DOWN, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term.”
  • With Trump polling behind several Democratic candidates in his 2020 re-election campaign and Americans fearing a recession within the next year, the president is seeking to deflect blame for any economic ills.
  • He has repeatedly blamed the Fed and Chairman Jerome Powell, who goes by Jay, for raising interest rates too steeply in 2018 and constraining the economy as the president pursues a trade war with China.

(Source: Bloomberg)