, Columnist
Do Trump’s Tweets Reduce Rates?
The president’s badgering of the Fed may affect Republican views of monetary policy more than monetary policy itself.
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Photographer: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
Donald Trump has been tweeting about the Fed for years. Now a new paper suggests that, since he became president, his tweets are actually having an effect — and are undermining the Federal Reserve’s independence.
A closer look, however, indicates something more subtle and benign: Trump’s tweets are simply a window into the changing political debate about the effectiveness of monetary policy, and that debate has an impact on future policy.