Donald Trump has stepped up the pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates with his most personal attack yet on Jerome Powell, the man he handpicked to run the US central bank, The Guardian reports.
Ahead of a crucial speech by Powell in Jackson Hole on Friday, the US president compared the Fed chairman to a golfer who was unable to putt and said he had let the country down.
Shares on Wall Street rose at the start of the day in expectation that Powell would signal his readiness to reduce the cost of borrowing in the coming months. The Fed’s independence is supposed to be guaranteed, but the financial markets are confident it will cut interest rates at each of its next three meetings.
Trump has been using his Twitter account in recent days to fend off accusations from the Democrats that the US is heading for a recession. He has also insisted that the world’s biggest economy would be doing even better but for Powell’s mistakes.
