10/1/2019

FEDERAL RESERVE/TRADE WARS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Tuesday [10-1-19] lashed out at the Federal Reserve after a widely tracked gauge of U.S. manufacturing showed the sector shrank for the second straight month, coming in at its worst reading since 2009. Manufacturers have been slammed by a sharp drop in new export orders as a result of the tariff wars that Trump has started with the U.S.’s top trading partners, but the president faulted the Fed for not cutting interest rates fast enough…The president has repeatedly argued that Powell, the Fed chair, and the rest of the central bank are ‘clueless’ for keeping interest rates higher than in other countries. Trump is right that the dollar is strong — making American exports more expensive — although that has much more to do with the relative health of the U.S. economy than with anything the central bank does.”

Victoria Guida, “Trump blames Fed as trade wars weigh on manufacturing,” Politico, October 1, 2019 12:13 pm