Pacifist to pugilist: Why Trump’s move against the US Fed boss could backfire |
Since Donald Trump came to office, his attempts to goad the US central bank’s chair Jerome Powell into cutting interest rates have met with a dead bat. But like the perpetually bullied kid, Powell has had enough.
The former pacifist has turned pugilist. Powell is fighting back and the time for a biblical ‘Turning the other cheek’ is over.
Trump has spewed plenty of insults at Powell over the past year to pressure him and the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates – including but not limited to calling him ‘a stupid person’, a ‘total nincompoop’, a ‘numbskull’ and a ‘stubborn mule’.
Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to pressure Fed chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates.Credit: Fairfax Media
But the Department of Justice (DOJ) move to issue subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment relating to Powell’s testimony about cost overruns on the Fed’s head office renovations, represents a concoction that in Powell’s mind is too extreme to ignore.
Powell’s term as chair of the Fed ends in May and the convention has been that the Fed chair steps down as the governor of the central bank’s board at the same time. But Powell’s term as Fed governor doesn’t finish until 2028 and........