Federal Reserve officials held their benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday, but hinted they would cut rates in the months ahead if the economic outlook weakens, the Wall Street Journal reports.
CNBC: “The decision came amid divisions over what is ahead and still leaves open the possibility that policy loosening could happen before the end of the year depending on how conditions unfold.”
“The White House explored the legality of demoting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in February, soon after President Trump talked about firing him,” Bloomberg reports.
“The White House counsel’s office weighed the legal implications of stripping Powell of his chairmanship and leaving him as a Fed governor, the people said, in what would be an unprecedented move. A replacement would have to be nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate.”
President Trump on Saturday predicted a stock market crash if he doesn’t win re-election in 2020.
Said Trump: “The Trump Economy is setting records, and has a long way up to go. However, if anyone but me takes over in 2020 (I know the competition very well), there will be a Market Crash the likes of which has not been seen before!”
President Trump “slammed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell again this week, insisting that Powell’s actions have prevented the economy from soaring even higher and declaring he’s out of patience with the man he picked to lead the nation’s central bank,” ABC News reports.
Trump also said he was “allowed” to criticize Powell and claimed it was commonplace in the “old days” for a president to “settle” with the bank’s chairman.
Said Trump: “You know, in the old days, they used to speak to the head of the Federal Reserve often. And it was … very much a part of the administration from the standpoint as they’d talk and they’d really settle. You have no idea how important it is.”
“A month ago, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell played down speculation of a rate cut this summer. Now officials at the central bank face a darker economic outlook and heightened trade tensions, making a rate cut possible—if not at their meeting on June 18-19, then in July or later,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The officials need to decide what would trigger such action, how much more information they want before making a decision and how to signal their intentions and plans. They are to begin their customary premeeting quiet period at the end of this week.”
Judy Shelton, a senior U.S. official who is being vetted for a job on the board of the Federal Reserve, told the Financial Times that the the central bank wields undemocratic, Soviet-style powers over markets.
Said Shelton: “How can a dozen, slightly less than a dozen, people meeting eight times a year, decide what the cost of capital should be versus some kind of organically, market supply determined rate? The Fed is not omniscient. They don’t know what the right rate should be. How could anyone?”
She added: “If the success of capitalism depends on someone being smart enough to know what the rate should be on everything… we’re doomed. We might as well resurrect Gosplan.”
A new survey of financial executives shows that fallout from Brexit has helped New York overtake London to become the world’s pre-eminent financial center, Reuters reports.
Politico: “The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 700 points, or 2.7 percent, in afternoon trading, after a flurry of belligerent tweets from President Trump — and quick retaliation from China in the form of new tariffs — threw gut punches at hopes for a deal between the two nations.”
“The sell-off framed a central conflict inside the White House — and seemingly within the president’s own mind. Trump loves a booming stock market, which he tracks obsessively, and views it as an indicator of success on par with his approval rating. At the same time, he loves his power to unilaterally impose tariffs, and sees winning tough concessions from China as key to his 2020 reelection bid.”
“But those two political imperatives are once again at odds.”
“President Trump’s next nominee to the Federal Reserve board may be one of his former domestic policy aides who now oversees economic policy studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Paul Winfree, who was deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, is under consideration for one of the two open positions on the Federal Reserve Board.”
Stephen Moore told the Wall Street Journal that he wouldn’t withdraw from consideration for a position on the Federal Reserve Board, despite growing doubts among Republican senators about his prospects for confirmation if nominated.
Said Moore: “I’m not pulling out.”
“Stephen Moore, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for the Federal Reserve board of governors, has underpaid his ex-wife’s alimony bills for years, leaving her out of pocket by tens of thousands of dollars,” the Guardian reports.
“Moore has continued paying Allison Moore significantly less than required under their 2011 divorce settlement…. The underpayment persisted even after Moore was found in contempt of court in Virginia in 2012, and came close to having his home seized, after he failed to pay Allison Moore more than $300,000 he owed her at the time.”
“Stephen Moore’s prospects of getting confirmed to the Federal Reserve Board grew dimmer Wednesday as Trump administration officials began to acknowledge privately he does not have the votes and Republican senators indicated the ensuing drama over Moore’s pending nomination would end soon,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD): “I think he’s gotten enough feedback from the people up here that his nomination is in trouble.”
“Stephen Moore, President Trump’s pick to serve on the Federal Reserve Board, once dismissed the Violence Against Women Act as the ‘most objectionable pork’ in the 1994 crime bill, saying the money would better spent if Americans were forced to write checks to ‘radical feminist’ groups,” CNN reports.
“More recently, he’s wondered aloud whether women would concern themselves about gender parity once they start out-earning men and suggested that women shouldn’t curse in public.”
“It’s part of a 25-year track record of dismissing women and criticizing gender equality in print and in interviews with conservative outlets.”
Washington Post: GOP support for Stephen Moore falls apart.
“The White House is reviewing past writings by Stephen Moore, the conservative commentator whom President Trump plans to nominate to the Federal Reserve Board, amid criticism that many of the opinion columns he penned denigrated women,” the New York Times reports.
“Stephen Moore, President Trump’s embattled pick for the Federal Reserve, is getting help from a conservative-leaning public relations firm in navigating his controversial effort to land a seat on the central bank’s board,” Politico reports.
Stephen Moore said he was hopeful about his chances of being nominated and confirmed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors but would bow out of the process if he became a political liability for the Trump administration or Senate Republicans, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Moore: “I want to help make America the most prosperous place in the world. I’m totally committed to it as long as the White House is totally committed.”
“Stephen Moore, President Trump’s planned nominee for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, said his opponents are ‘pulling a Kavanaugh against me’ amid new revelations about columns in the 2000s in which he made derogatory statements about women, called for former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue (R) to be impeached and made a joking reference to AIDS,” the Washington Post reports.
“Moore is also coming under scrutiny for saying in 2016 that it would be a ‘betrayal’ for Trump to pick former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) to be secretary of state. Romney now represents Utah in the Senate, which would have to approve Moore’s nomination if he is to be confirmed to the position.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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