Stephen Moore
Anjali Sundaram | CNBC
Potential Federal Reserve nominee Stephen Moore disagrees with President Donald Trump's call for the central bank to sharply cut rates.
"I'm not so sure I agree with the White House that we should cut rates by an entire percentage point," Moore told Bloomberg News on Thursday. "I just don't see the case for that right now."
Moore made his comments after Trump called for a 1% cuts to the Fed's overnight rate and urged for more quantitative easing, which are the measures used by the central bank to stimulate the economy after the financial crisis.
In a series of tweets, Trump said the U.S. economy would go up "like a rocket" if the Fed loosened monetary policy.
Trump's call for lower rates came after the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of 3.2% in the first quarter. That was the best start to a year since 2015.
On Wednesday, the Fed kept interest rates unchanged, citing lackluster inflation. However, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said low inflationary pressures may just be "transitory," hinting inflation could pick up.
The Fed raised rates four times in 2018. The last rate hike was followed by a massive sell-off in the equity market and then a sharp rebound.
Moore added he "could make the case for repealing the rate hike that took place in December" since the economy was slowing at that point.
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment