Trump May Finally Get His Wish From the Fed

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has long been subjected to the unprecedented, unrelenting and decidedly unkind personal attentions of Donald Trump, replete with schoolyard names and threats of termination. The president very much wants the central bank to cut interest rates, hoping such a move will firm up a wavering US economy, and perhaps by extension his approval rating.

Now it appears that Trump will finally get his wish. While he was in Washington Friday, threatening to fire a Fed governor (which, like the threat to Powell, is largely outside his power), the Fed Chair was in Jackson Hole explaining why rising unemployment means a policy adjustment may be in the cards. Powell’s comment, which instantly turbocharged markets, came despite widespread fear among economists that Trump’s trade war is a ticking time bomb for inflation and the US economy as a whole.