Dismissal or not? US President Donald Trump blown up hot and cold on the future of the President of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell on Wednesday, ensuring thinking that you are looking at the possibility of considering the possibility as “very improbable”.
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During a press briefing at the White House, in the presence of the crown prince of the Bahrain Salmane Hamad ben Issa Al-Khalifa, Mr. Trump judged that Mr. Powell did “bad job”, but “does not speak” of dismissing him, after having assured a little earlier in the morning he thought about it, stressing that he “does not deviate, but” that it was “very improbable”.
It is a form of retropedage on the part of the American president, who had assured journalists earlier that he considered that the cost of renovating the Fed buildings in Washington, could be “a reason to justify a dismissal”.
The works have already cost $ 2.5 billion, according to the management and budget office (OMB) of the White House, Donald Trump seeing it as poor use of federal funds.
“I would not have imagined that he was going to spend 2.5 billion dollars to build a small extension to the Fed,” the American president had told the press from the White House earlier during the day. “Is this a reason to justify a dismissal?” I think it can be ”.
“He spent much more money than he was supposed to do so. Who wants to see the Fed spend so much money? It is supposed to come together, to say what interest rates do and a few other things very easy to do, “he added.
According to the White House, the American president met on Tuesday evening Republican elected officials in order to discuss with them the subject, a source specifying to AFP that the president was thinking about doing so, even if it was not imminent.
Lower Fed levels
Trump has been criticizing Mr. Powell for several months, whom he nicknamed “Too late Powell”, for not having dropped interest rates from the Central Bank when, according to him, inflation is no longer a problem.
“I think it is one of the easiest jobs of the government. You come once a month, you make a statement about the state of the economy and if you are increasing or lower the rates. This is undoubtedly the simplest job I have ever seen, “said the American president.
The day before, he called on the Fed to lower its key rates, currently located in a range between 4.25% and 4.50%, three percentage points.
According to the CPI index published on Tuesday, inflation accelerated again in June, at 2.7%, still far from the target of 2% price increase, planned in the mandate in the American central bank.
The Fed has maintained its unchanged rates since the start of the year in the face of the persistence of inflation.
Asked about the subject during an interview on CNBC, the director general of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, said that it would be very bad for the president to dismiss that of the Fed “, adding that he had no immediate elements on the subject.
The financial markets have misunderstood this information. The dollar fell briefly by 1% against the euro before going up.
On the bond market, the yield of the American loan at thirty years suddenly stretched 5.07% against 5.02% the day before, before falling slightly.
Gold, refuge value par excellence, gained ground (+0.74%).
Wall Street’s stars indices also fell back in stride, before resuming somewhat after Mr. Trump’s flip-flop.
