ELECTION/FEDERAL RESERVE/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A former top Federal Reserve official implied that the central bank should consider allowing President Trump’s trade war to hurt his 2020 election chances, an assertion that drew a firestorm of criticism and a rare pushback from the Fed itself. William Dudley, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now a research scholar at Princeton University, said in a Bloomberg Opinion piece that ‘Trump’s re-election arguably presents a threat to the U.S. and global economy.’ Mr. Dudley added that ‘if the goal of monetary policy is to achieve the best long-term economic outcome, then Fed officials should consider how their decisions will affect the political outcome in 2020.’ It is a controversial statement, particularly coming from an official who ranked among the Fed’s most powerful policymakers as recently as 2018. It also comes at a sensitive moment for the Fed, which has been under attack from Mr. Trump and trying to assert its independence from the White House and politics in general.”
–Jeanna Smialek, “Fed Could Hit Back at Trump, a Former Top Official Suggests,” The New York Times online, August 27, 2019