ECONOMY/FEDERAL RESERVE/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “GOP lawmakers have given in to President Donald Trump on almost every contentious issue, but they’re quietly breaking from him on one front that has drawn the president’s repeated ire: the Federal Reserve. Trump is pushing two celebrity Republicans and Fed critics — Herman Cain and Stephen Moore — to serve on the central bank’s board in his bid to shake and shape the institution in Trumpian ways. He has called on the Fed to slash interest rates despite strong economic growth. And he has railed against the central bank for removing the extraordinary economic support put in place during the last recession. It may force congressional Republicans into playing an unusual role: rebelling against Trump. GOP lawmakers — who often showed little restraint in lambasting the Fed for near-zero interest rates in the Obama era — are signaling publicly and privately their intent to keep politics out of the central bank. They generally support Chairman Jerome Powell, and many have expressed opposition to serious political meddling in setting rates. The lawmakers plan to press Trump nominees about their allegiance to the Fed’s data-based approach, amid concern that the president wants the central bank to pursue policies that will goose the economy.”
–Victoria Guida, “Trump’s Fed threats meet a firewall: GOP lawmakers,” Politico, April 8, 2019 8:20 pm