U.S. President Donald Trump again called for Powell to cut rates.
Economic activity might ‘fall off' in summer, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said.
The Trump administration could overhaul the U.S. State Department.
Fees on Chinese-built vessels will be imposed by the Trump administration.
Ukraine said it had signed the outline of a mineral deal with the U.S.
Tesla and Alphabet are announcing first-quarter earnings this week.
An independent central bank is seen by most (including this newsletter) as the bedrock of a functional economy. Officials steer the economy by calibrating the benchmark interest rate on which bank loans and mortgages, among other debt, are based.
Corporations and consumers, in general, like low interest rates because the cost of borrowing is cheaper. The former is incentivized to expand and invest, which, in turn, tend to increase income and spending among the latter. But such behavior can overheat the economy, causing prices to shoot up.
U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated calls for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates might make businesses and people happy — at the cost of letting inflation run rampant again. Factor in Trump's tariffs, which are taxes on imports and hence fundamentally price increases, and inflation could be getting two shots in the arm.
That's why central bankers tend to operate independently from the government. An administration that aims to please the populace might cut rates despite high inflation, leading to further economic difficulties.
It's a relief markets in the U.S. and Europe were on a break for the Good Friday holiday when Trump made his comments.
Trump again calls for Powell to cut rates
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that "if we had a Fed Chairman that understood what he was doing, interest rates would be coming down, too." The White House said Friday that officials are assessing whether they can remove the Fed chair. This is not the first time Trump has criticized Powell's approach to U.S. monetary policy.
Source: CNBC
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