Trump demands Fed lower rates, reviving pressure campaign

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump intensified pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, threatening to cut off trade with certain economies which the US has a deficit if the central bank doesn’t act. Trump issued his demands on Sept 4 in a lengthy social media post after a stronger-than-expected August jobs report, which could bolster the case for Fed officials to raise rates at their next policy meeting starting Sept 15. In his post, the president exhorted his hand-picked Fed chairman Kevin Warsh, whom he called “great,” and board members to “get smart” and “BE PATRIOTS for a change.” “LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT,” Trump posted.“High interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, and I won’t allow that to happen!”Trump said the US Supreme Court, which struck down his previous tariff regime, had acknowledged his authority to do that.But if he moves forward with trade embargoes, it would almost certainly trigger a legal challenge. It’s unclear how such an action would help lower US borrowing costs. Trump later on Sept 4 rejected the idea that a hike in rates would reassure bond markets that are worried about debt and inflation, saying that the US should be at a 1 per cent rate or lower.“It doesn’t reassure the bond market,” Trump said about raising interest rates. “We should be at 1 per cent or half-a-per cent, we should not be at 4 per cent.”Trump also defended his threat to cut off trade with certain economies, citing Switzerland, Mexico and the European Union, as an example of partners who benefited from their ties with the US.“We have countries that are considered elite financially, like Switzerland, like others. But if we didn’t trade with them, they would be bankrupt countries,” Trump said.“They’re considered elite because we have massive deficits with them. We have the right not to trade. We have the right to put tariffs on them.”The Sept 4 message shows that Trump is running out of patience with the Fed just months after Warsh took over from Jerome Powell, whom the president routinely attacked over the bank’s policy decisions. Trump had pulled back on his pressure campaign against the Fed after Warsh became chair, but the post amounts to a resumption of it.The president’s approval ratings have plummeted ahead of November’s midterm elections, as polls show Americans have panned his handling of the cost of living and the war in Iran. US jobs growth unexpectedly surged in August, with non-farm payrolls adding 162,000 positions, and the unemployment rate held steady.Investors boosted bets on a rate hike at the Fed’s upcoming meeting in response, sending stocks and short-dated bonds lower.Trump, who regularly touts a booming stock market as vindication for his policies, bristled at the slide in a subsequent post.“We just got GREAT Numbers on Jobs, the Market should go UP, because our Credit and Economy are better but, as always, for the past 25 years, the Stock Market goes DOWN, because we’re living under False Reality that if things are good, you’ve got to ‘KILL IT’ because of a ‘fear’ of Inflation,” Trump said.The president in his posts went even further than his top White House economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, who earlier on Sept 4 said that the jobs numbers strengthened the case to keep interest rates the same. “We respect the Fed’s independence, but I think the argument for holding steady would be pretty strong,” Hassett said on CNBC. BLOOMBERG