8/23/2019

ECONOMY/FEDERAL RESERVE/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, kept future interest rate cuts squarely on the table on Friday [8-23-19] but suggested that the central bank was limited in its ability to counteract President Trump’s trade policies, which are stoking uncertainty and posing risks to the economic outlook. Mr. Powell’s remarks drew a swift and angry reaction from Mr. Trump, who equated the Fed leader with the president’s adversary in the trade war, President Xi Jinping of China. ‘My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?,’ Mr. Trump wrote in one of a series of Twitter posts. The president’s harsh response to Mr. Powell, a frequent target of Mr. Trump’s ire, came after the Fed chair suggested that the central bank may be unable to overcome economic uncertainty stemming from the president’s trade war.”

Jeanna Smialek, “Powell Highlights Fed’s Limits. Trump Labels Him an ‘Enemy’,” The New York Times online, August 23, 2019