WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Federal Reserve is highlighting the importance of its political independence at a time when Donald Trump, who frequently attacked the Fed\u2019s policymaking in the past, edges closer to formally becoming the Republican nominee for president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, the Fed released its\u00a0twice-yearly report\u00a0on its interest-rate policies, a typically dry document that primarily includes its analysis of job growth, inflation, interest rates and other economic trends. The report includes short text boxes that focus on often-technical issues such as monetary policy rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report is typically released the Friday before the Fed chair testifies to House and Senate committees as part of the central bank\u2019s semi-annual report to Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of the boxes appear regularly in most reports, like one that focuses on employment and earnings for different demographic groups. Friday\u2019s report, however, includes a new box titled, \u201cMonetary policy independence, transparency, and accountability.\u201d It is there that the Fed stressed the vital need for it to operate independent of political pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is broad support for the principles underlying independent monetary policy,\u201d the report says. \u201cOperational independence of monetary policy has become an international norm, and economic research indicates that economic performance has tended to be better when central banks have such independence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such statements suggest that the Fed is seeking to shore up support in Congress for its independence, which Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week mentioned as a crucial bulwark against political attacks on the Fed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesperson for the Fed declined to comment on the inclusion of the text box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI do think support for the Fed\u2019s independence is very high, where it really matters on Capitol Hill, in both political parties,\u201d Powell said Tuesday during a monetary policy conference in Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the pandemic struck in 2020, Trump, as president,\u00a0repeatedly badgered\u00a0the Fed to lower its benchmark interest rate, which can reduce the cost of consumer and business borrowing and stimulate the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, as the Fed gradually raised its benchmark rate from ultra-low levels that had been put in place after the Great Recession, Trump, in a highly unusual attack from a sitting president,\u00a0called the central bank\u00a0\u201cmy biggest threat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he said, regarding Powell, \u201cI\u2019m not happy with what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump originally nominated Powell as Fed chair, and President Joe Biden later re-nominated him to a term that will end in May 2026. Trump has already indicated that he\u00a0wouldn\u2019t renominate Powell\u00a0if he is elected president again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Powell, when asked Tuesday about the potential threat posed to the Fed\u2019s independence should Trump be elected again, said, \u201cI am not focused on that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI really think that we just keep doing our jobs,\u201d Powell continued. \u201cI mean, the U.S. economy \u2014 we have\u00a04% unemployment, it\u2019s growing at 2%. Inflation\u2019s\u00a0at 2.6%. Let\u2019s keep that going. Let\u2019s do our jobs. History will judge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Federal Reserve is highlighting t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3381,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379\/revisions\/3381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}