Trump, Powell met Monday at White House to discuss economy

File Photo: US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Jerome Powell, his nominee to become chairman of the US Federal Reserve at the White House in Washington, US – Reuters

 Washington (Reuters): US President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell met at the White House on Monday in their second meeting since Powell started the job in February 2017, and soon became the target of criticism from the president who appointed him.

The Fed announced the meeting in a news release, adding they met “to discuss the economy, growth, employment and inflation.”

“Everything was discussed including interest rates, negative interest, low inflation, easing, Dollar strength & its effect on manufacturing, trade with China, EU and others, etc.,” Trump said on Twitter soon after, calling the session “good & cordial.”

In a Twitter post late on Monday, Trump said he “protested fact that our Fed Rate is set too high relative to the interest rates of other competitor countries. In fact, our rates should be lower than all others (we are the US). Too strong a Dollar hurting manufacturers & growth!”

The Fed’s wording closely followed its description of Powell’s first meeting with Trump, this past February, over a dinner that also included Vice Chair Richard Clarida.

Trump’s comments marked a change in tone. In recent months he has derided Powell and his colleagues as “pathetic” and “boneheads” for not cutting interest rates, and in August labeled Powell personally as an enemy of the United States, on a par with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The Fed in its statement was careful to note what was not discussed: Powell’s expectations for future monetary policy.

Trump has, for more than a year, charged the Fed with undermining his economic policies by, in his view, keeping interest rates too high, and depriving the United States of what he feels are the benefits of the negative rates of interest set by the European and Japanese central banks.

The US central bank has cut rates three times this year – in part to offset what it views as damage done by the Trump administration’s trade war with China.

But after their last meeting, in October, policymakers signalled they would lower rates no further unless the economy took a serious turn for the worse.

Less than 24 hours after that decision, Trump laid into Powell again, saying people were “VERY disappointed” in him and the Fed. And only last week, Trump lobbed another dig in a tweet that said inflation was low: “(do you hear that Powell?)”

Powell “did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming information that bears on the outlook for the economy,” the Fed said in its statement.

Powell appeared before congressional committees twice last week, and the Fed said his comments to Trump were “consistent” with his statements to lawmakers.

“Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also attended.