, Columnist
Trump Wants to Blame the Fed, Not Control It
The independence of the U.S. Federal Reserve has always been exaggerated anyway.
No one tells these bankers what to do.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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There is a common narrative that President Donald Trump attacked the independence of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank on Twitter last week. It's wrong on several points.
First, Trump’s attack was on the Fed itself rather than on its independence per se. He did report that he was “not happy” with forthcoming interest rate increases, and at first I too thought he was seeking to forestall them. But upon reflection, I decided that Trump is playing a subtler game: laying the groundwork for blaming the Fed if anything goes wrong with the U.S. economy.