ECONOMY/FEDERAL RESERVE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Another brutal day on Wall Street and President Trump once again decided to blame Fed Chair Jay Powell rather than face the reality that the U.S. economy is likely to slow down next year as the tax cut stimulus fades, a trade war with China looms and the deficit spikes higher with demand for U.S. debt declining. The Fed is doing exactly what it’s supposed to at a time of very low unemployment and rising wages. And every time Trump bashes the central bank he makes it LESS likely that the Fed will look at sluggish growth numbers and sagging stocks and decides to slow down its pace of rate hikes. The central bank cannot allow itself to be viewed as caving to Trump or it will erode its independence and lose credibility with markets. It seems clear that Trump – even as senior advisers tell him to leave Powell alone – is much more interested in having a fall guy to blame for the market decline than he is about having a better shot at the Fed pausing in December or reducing the number of hikes expected next year. For the moment he needs to blame the fact that markets are now down for the year or someone other than himself. And that person is Jay Powell.”
–Ben White and Aubree Eliza Weaver, “Trump needs a market scape goat,” Politico, November 21, 2018 8:00 am