ECONOMY/FEDERAL RESERVE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Federal Reserve officials are poised to disappoint President Trump at the conclusion of their two-day policy meeting on Wednesday [5-1-19], with the central bank expected to leave interest rates unchanged despite Mr. Trump’s repeated calls for it to start cutting rates. Mr. Trump has criticized the Fed’s 2018 interest rate increases for slowing growth and called on it to start using its tools to stimulate the economy. On Tuesday [4-30-19], Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the Fed should lower its benchmark rate by a percentage point, saying such a move could send United States economic growth ‘up like a rocket’…But the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, which operates independent of the White House, is widely expected to hold rates steady on Wednesday when it releases its decision at 2 p.m. Fed officials are unlikely to explicitly suggest that a rate reduction is coming anytime soon, economists think.”
–Jeanna Smialek, “Fed Likely to Leave Interest Rates Unchanged as Trump Calls for Cut,” The New York Times online, April 30, 2019