The Atlantic

The Last Apolitical Institution in Washington

President Trump keeps criticizing the Federal Reserve. The central bank keeps ignoring him.
Source: Carlos Barria / Reuters

This week, President Donald Trump took aim at the Federal Reserve. Again. “The Fed is going wild. I mean, I don’t know what their problem is, but they’re raising interest rates and it’s ridiculous,” he said after the markets posted steep and sudden drops. “The Fed is going loco, and there’s no reason for them to do it.”

The president was gesturing to the fact that the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy by raising interest rates three times this year, as was widely expected given a low unemployment rate and steady growth. The central: “It is a lot of safety, and it gives you a lot of margin.” But it might be forcing the markets and perhaps the whole economy into a correction, he implied.

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