Source: Racket News
by Eric Salzman
“It’s a safe assumption that any president would have a strong preference for an easing of monetary policy (lower policy rates at a minimum) as opposed to tightening monetary policy. Moreover, communicating that preference, although perhaps a lot more subtly than Trump, to the Fed Chairman has gone on for quite some time. However, by deploying extraordinary monetary policy from 2008 to 2018 and then from 2020 to 2022, the Fed has shown every president, both present and future, that those powers can juice the economy in ways that fiscal policy can rarely match. The temptation for a president to cajole a Fed chairman has risen dramatically since 2008 and I don’t expect it to end with the Trump presidency.” (01/21/26)