Trump rips Fed: 'Who is our bigger enemy,' Powell or China's Xi?
President Trump lashed out at the Federal Reserve after its chairman, Jerome Powell, stopped short of saying the U.S. central bank is prepared to cut interest rates for a second time this year.
In a tweet, Trump compared Powell -- whom he’s repeatedly criticized, despite hand-picking him almost two years ago -- to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“As usual, the Fed did NOTHING!” Trump tweeted, initially misspelling Powell’s last name before changing it. “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powel or Chairman Xi?”
His tweet came shortly after Powell gave a speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in Wyoming, during which he promised policymakers will “act as appropriate” to sustain the record economic expansion. The economic outlook, Powell said, remains strong, despite uncertainties resulting from the U.S.-China trade war, slowing global growth and muted inflation.
"Because the most important effects of monetary policy are felt with uncertain lags of a year or more, the Committee must attempt to look through what may be passing developments and focus on things that seem likely to affect the outlook over time or that pose a material risk of doing so," Powell said in prepared remarks.
But amid fears of an economic recession, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the Fed, blaming policymakers for raising rates too high, too quickly, while urging them to lower rates. At the most recent meeting in July, the Fed voted to drop borrowing costs for the first time in more than a decade.
Traders are pricing in a 100 percent chance of a rate cut during the Fed's Sept. 17-18 meeting, according to the CME's FedWatch tool.