Fed to cut interest rates? Not...

Trump intensifies calls on Fed to cut interest rates

By KATIE GALIOTO

President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, renewing his long-running campaign against the central bank, which he claims has hindered the United States’ economic growth.

In a pair of tweets, the president said the U.S. economy has “the potential to go up like a rocket” if the Fed would lower interest rates “like one point” and resume quantitative easing, a bond-buying program launched by the Fed in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis to stop the collapse of the housing market and increase the supply of money in the economy.

The central bank is hosting its regular Federal Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday.

The president compared the United States with China, a nation that he said is “adding great stimulus to its economy while at the same time keeping interest rates low.”

“Yes, we are doing very well at 3.2% GDP, but with our wonderfully low inflation, we could be setting major records &, at the same time, make our National Debt start to look small!” Trump tweeted.

This summer, the current economic expansion will become the longest in U.S. history. The economy grew by 2.9 percent in 2018.

Trump has often clashed with the Fed throughout his presidency, at one time calling the central bank the “only problem” facing the nation’s economy. For months, Trump decried Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for raising interest rates, hikes which were made four times last year to prevent prices from rising too rapidly and wean the economy off cheap debt that could eventually start to threaten the stability of the financial system.

The president has also pledged to nominate Fed governors who've said they support rate cuts, an agenda he’s pushed by picking Stephen Moore for one of the two open seats on the central bank’s board. Though Moore has not yet been officially nominated, his prospective path to Senate confirmation has been complicated by the revelation of past controversial comments about women.

Trump announced he would not nominate his other pick for the board, former pizza executive and 2012 presidential hopeful Herman Cain, after it became clear he would not be confirmed by the Senate.