Bloomberg reports Trump Complains to Donors in the Hamptons About Powell’s Rate Hikes.
> President Donald Trump said he expected Jerome Powell to be a cheap-money Fed chairman and lamented to wealthy Republican donors at a Hamptons fundraiser on Friday that his nominee instead raised interest rates, according to three people present.
> Trump has publicly lamented the central bank’s recent rate increases, but his private remarks to donors are the most personal criticism of Powell’s performance to emerge so far. The people who described the comments asked not to be identified because the fundraiser was closed to the public.
> His jabs built on an attack he leveled at Powell’s Fed in July, when he pronounced himself “not thrilled” with the rate increases. That broadside, in an interview with CNBC, broke with a more than two-decade-old norm of presidents avoiding comments on monetary policy out of respect for the Fed’s independence.
> About 60 people attended Trump’s fundraiser at the Southampton home of Howard Lorber, the chairman of hot dog company Nathan’s Famous. Guests included Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts; John Catsimatidis Jr., the son of [Red Apple Group](https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/3693660Z:US “Company Overview”) Chairman John Catsimatidis; Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel; Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; White House Chief of Staff John Kelly; and senior White House aides Jared Kushner and Dan Scavino.
> Trump held a discussion with a small group and then made remarks to a larger group over a dinner of salad with chicken in a tent in Lorber’s yard. It was a humid night and Trump joked that Lorber could have afforded better air conditioning, according to one of the people.
Trump Fed History
Nov 3, 2015 Reuters: Trump Accuses Fed of Keeping Rates Low to Help Obama
Trump, speaking at a news conference at his company’s New York City headquarters, also called Fed Chair Janet Yellen “highly political.”
May 5, 2016 CNBC: Donald Trump: This is Why I’m for Low Interest Rates
“I have nothing against Janet Yellen whatsoever. I think she’s been doing her job,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said in a wide-ranging phone interview with “Squawk Box.”
“I don’t know her. She’s a very capable person. People I know have a high regard for her. But she’s not a Republican,” he added. Trump argued for low rates to keep the national debt of $19 trillion somewhat manageable. Calling himself “the king of debt” in his business dealings, he warned that the national debt would be troublesome if the cost of borrowing increases.
“We’re paying a very low interest rate. What happens if that interest rate goes up 2, 3, 4 points?” he asked. “We don’t have a country.” The U.S. should refinance longer-term debt, he added.
Sep 12, 2016 WSJ: Trump Claims Yellen Is Holding Rates Low to Aid Obama
Mr. Trump, presumably speaking of Ms. Yellen, said interest rates have been kept low “because she’s obviously political and doing what Obama wants her to do.” Mr. Trump, in an interview on CNBC, added “what they [the Fed] are doing is, I believe, it’s a false market. Money is essentially free.” Ms. Yellen, he said, “should be ashamed of herself.”
June 13, 2107 CNBC: Trump Reportedly told Yellen he Considers her a ‘Low-Interest-Rate’ Person Like Himself.
President Donald Trump said he likes low interest rates in a meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, according to a Tuesday Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the conversation.
Weeks after taking office, Trump told Yellen he believes she is a “low-interest rate” person like himself, the report said.
Nov 2, 2017 NYT: Trump Announces Jerome Powell as New Fed Chairman
“He’s strong, he’s committed, he’s smart,” Mr. Trump said in the White House Rose Garden, where he introduced Mr. Powell as his choice.
Mr. Trump said that he respected Ms. Yellen and on Thursday called her “a wonderful woman who has done a terrific job.”
Jul 19, 2018 CNBC: Trump Lays Into the Federal Reserve, Says he’s ‘Not Thrilled’ About Interest Rate Hikes.
Trump, in an interview with CNBC, said he does not approve, even though he said he “put a very good man in” at the Fed in Powell. “I’m not thrilled,” he told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview to air in full Friday at 6 a.m. ET on “Squawk Box.” “Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I don’t really — I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best.” “But I don’t like all of this work that goes into doing what we’re doing.”
Aug 20, 2018 Bloomberg: Expected Powell to be “Cheap Money Chair“
Image courtesy of Hedgeye.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
this has been so useful for us.
Welcome to democracy. Where the people we vote for are just patsies. Mouthpieces to the larger political oligarchy. In the face of rising interest rates, economic turmoil and the inevitable recession somewhere on the horizon, who better to sacrifice to the masses than Hillary or Trump. People think these are our leaders but it’s time to wake up, they don’t write all the bills passed by the senate they simply distract the public from the necessary economic disaster being orchestrated in the background.
If I were in Donnie’s place, I’m sure I would also be annoyed by the more favorable treatment the fed gave Obama.
2.0% IS cheap money, Donald! We’re still well below historical norms.
Now, the big question: Are you going to try to take on the central bankers, the most powerful people in our society, or are you content to whine at fund raisers every so often? Never mind, I think we already know what the answer is.
trillion dollar deficits “officially” probably more than double that if you subtract the phony accounting gimmicks,bait n switch bookkeeping,so he’s right,rates like the unemployment rate,the inflation rate can never rise again (ever)
Probably because he’s a real estate guy and low rates really helped move RE prices back up again. I’m ok with rate increases, it’s not like they are raising them much, I heard the target is 3% by late 2020, I don’t think we will get back over 3% again, and I used to think 4% was possible. My lowly mortgage is at 2.625%/15 year and before that loan is paid in 12 years for sure a better rate will come along, but good lenders don’t want small loans. Low rates are here to stay, and some say negative rates are the future. In the future it may come to be that the only way to have an actual savings account that might yield anything is to just carry tangibles that ride inflation, RE, PM’s, antiques, what have you.
I hope Jerome continues raising interest rates and drives a stake into the heart of the vampire economy. Kill the beast!
Unlikely that Powell (for that matter any central bankster) will kill the beast. After all, they belong to the same clan.
Banksters and central banksters are beasts who need to be put away for the good of mankind.
Both beasts (one gives loans to people who cannot afford it and when it becomes sour they get bailed out and the other puts savers, retirees and prudent people under the bus and prints free money with the prime objective of saving the other beast from its just desserts) feed on people and gloat over it.
What can we the common people expect other than to get eaten up by these beasts in due course. Never treat a wolf or jackal as a friend. After all, they are beasts!
With Gold remaining stubbornly above $22/oz, Powell is very much a cheap money chair, by any reasonable measure.
Off topic, but what the heck is up with this?
“Ronna Romney McDaniel (born January 19, 1973) is the current Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and former Chair of the Michigan Republican Party. McDaniel is the granddaughter of two-term Michigan Governor and Nixon administration cabinet member George W. Romney and niece of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.” – Ronna McDaniel wiki page
Remember kids, there’s no political class, no elites and anyone can grow up to be President. Alex Jones is just a crazed paranoid freak and good riddance to him. The boorish man occupying the Oval Office is just an unhinged wanna-be oligarch, not someone trying to get some new blood into politics.
(mostly sarcasm)
I really don’t know what to think about Trump at this point, but I know that anyone who’s caused this much angst and worry for the DC Elites must be doing something right. The furor over the revocation of Brennan’s security clearance, which basically locked him out of getting lucrative lobbying and media deals, is pretty much all we need to know about how things work in Washington.