Trump allegedly discussing firing Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell
14 replies, posted
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-22/trump-said-to-discuss-firing-fed-s-powell-after-latest-rate-hike?srnd=premium
President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as his frustration with the central bank chief intensified following this week’s interest-rate hike
and months of stock-market losses, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Advisers close to Trump aren’t convinced he would move against Powell and are hoping that the president’s latest bout of anger will dissipate over the holidays, the people said on
condition of anonymity. Some of Trump’s advisers have warned him that firing Powell would be a disastrous move. Yet the president has talked privately about firing Powell many
times in the past few days, said two of the people.
Any attempt by Trump to push out Powell would have potentially devastating ripple effects across financial markets, undermining investors’ confidence in the central bank’s ability to
shepherd the economy without political interference. It would come as markets have plummeted in recent weeks, with the major stock indexes already down sharply for the year.
White House spokespeople declined to comment, as did Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith.
It’s unclear how much legal authority the president has to fire Powell. The Federal Reserve Act says governors may be “removed for cause by the President.” Since the chairman is also
a governor, that presumably extends to him or her, but the rules around firing the leader are legally ambiguous, as Peter Conti-Brown of the University of Pennsylvania notes in his book
on Fed independence.
Such a move would represent an unprecedented challenge to the Fed’s independence. Though he was nominated by the president, Powell was thought to be insulated from Trump’s
dissatisfaction by a tradition of respect for the independence of the central bank.
Trump’s frustration with Powell has greatly intensified in recent days, said two of the people. Though Trump’s aim is to stop interest rate increases that slow economic growth, such a
move could backfire by roiling already turbulent financial markets.
Man, the past month has been batshit in global politics.
because america really needs a recession on top of everything else.
Mr. Manbaby President, firing the chief of the federal reserve just because he can't magic up some way to make your stupid statements and bad decisions don't make stockholders to panic, isn't going to change one fucking thing. Just admit you suck at business and attempting to manage America as a business has so far only gone south.
This is caveman logic. How the fuck is this supposed to help shareholder confidence?
I know he is supposed to be a shit business man but holy fuck
he can't order him fired. Only congress has the authority to remove him.
2019 will be so fun economically. /s
He also couldn't order the man he appointed as AG into that position. As I have repeatedly stated: A President with a complicit Congress has literally unlimited power.
while yes you're right the federal reserve is not a government agency, he has the legal authority to nominate the heads but he can't actually do anything.
If by his orders it happens then he has assumed that legal authority. What he can 'actually do' is up to how much people are willing to allow him to do what he wants.
its entirely up to Jerome Powell if he resigns or not. Now Mitch has unfortunately kept all the fed seats open so trump could have an unprecedented amount of seats to nominate, something entirely opposite of the intent as the fed is supposed to be regularly scheduled so as to make it impossible to rig one way or another, but even congress would have a hard time removing him as it would require impeachment and then a 70 vote majority.
Unfortunately, that isn't the truth of the matter.
The holding in Myers boils down to the proposition that the Constitution endows the President with an illimitable power to remove all officers in whose appointment he has participated, with the exception of federal judges.
Source: The Removal Power
Important footnote however: No President has ever exercised that power to do so. Trump would be the first.
If Trump is concerned about share markets, then firing the chairman of the most powerful central bank in the world would undoubtedly send domestic and global share markets into catastrophic free fall.
It’s also ironically very socialist; No sane western government would ever fire a board member of a central bank; central banks (like supreme courts) are above politics, which includes the freedom to perform monetary policy without any government interference whatsoever.
Why do you think some of the remaining sane conservatives in the country hate Trump so much? It's clear he doesn't actually understand the politics he claims to adhere too - he's an idiot flailing around in the darkness, and his one and only objective since he first launched his presidential campaign has been to serve his own self-interest. If he thought he could have actually won the presidency by running as a "democrat" or even "socialist," he would have surely done so. And his steadfast supporters don't have any coherent political ideology other than self interest, either - whether it's the evangelicals who excuse his clearly un-Christ-like behavior because of their desire to enact a theocracy, or the rural illiterates who support the most racist candidate by default because they've been indoctrinated since birth that the brown man is to blame for all their problems.
He can't accept that anything is his fault, so he has to find a scapegoat, and he's running low on them.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-14/trump-cost-from-fed-rate-hikes-may-already-top-5-million-a-year
Found the real reason
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