Live Blog : Powell Says Trump Not Permitted by Law to Fire Fed Officials, Governors
President-elect Donald Trump has been at odds with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell throughout his election campaign that ended with him winning the top seat at the White House during this week's race.
That has fueled speculation that Trump may pressure Powell to leave his post when the next president is sworn into office in January. Powell was clear in saying he has no plans of quitting.
At Thursday's press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee decided to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, Powell was asked if he would leave his post if Trump asks him to. His answer was a clear "No."
While the Fed chairman tried to avoid answering political questions, he was emphatic when asked about his tenure. A reporter later asked if the Fed has determined legality of a president demoting him or any other governors with leadership position at the Fed.
At Thursday's press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee decided to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, Powell was asked if he would leave his post if Trump asks him to. His answer was a clear "No."
While the Fed chairman tried to avoid answering political questions, he was emphatic when asked about his tenure. A reporter later asked if the Fed has determined legality of a president demoting him or any other governors with leadership position at the Fed.
Powell's reply was short and simple: "Not permitted by law."
Below is a blog of the news as they broke at Thursday's press conference. Thanks for joining our coverage and don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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2:51 p.m.
Powell said policymakers are watching Treasury yields as they review financial conditions in deciding how much to cut in interest rates.
The 10-year Treasury yields rose to 4.48% on Wednesday, the highest since July. The yields have climbed from a low of 3.6% on Sept. 16, a day before policymakers cut the federal funds rate by half a percentage point.
"We've watched the run-up in bond rates and it's nowhere near where it was a year ago," Powell said at a press conference Thursday following the Federal Open Market Committee's decision to cut rates by another quarter percentage point. "We do take financial conditions into account if they -- if they're persistent and if they're material, then we'll certainly take them into account in our policy. But I would say we're not -- we're not at that stage right now where it's just something that we're watching."
"We've watched the run-up in bond rates and it's nowhere near where it was a year ago," Powell said at a press conference Thursday following the Federal Open Market Committee's decision to cut rates by another quarter percentage point. "We do take financial conditions into account if they -- if they're persistent and if they're material, then we'll certainly take them into account in our policy. But I would say we're not -- we're not at that stage right now where it's just something that we're watching."
2:41 pm
Powell said policymakers are waiting to see how and what policy changes could be implemented under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump before modeling a monetary policy reaction.
"There's nothing to model right now," Powell said in a press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee decided to cut interest rate by a quarter percentage point. "It's such an early stage we don't know what the policies are and once we know what they are, we won't have a sense of, you know, when they'll be implemented or all those sorts of things."
2:38 p.m.
Powell said the labor market "is not a source of significant inflationary pressures," as he cited indicators that signal the labor market is now less tight than it was before the pandemic in 2019.
Earlier today, the Federal Open Market cited "labor market conditions have generally eased and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low." The statement was issued after policymakers decided to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, as the market expected.
In a press conference after the FOMC meeting, Powell said this week's presidential election will have no near-term effects on policy decisions, noting that policymakers still don't know "the timing and substance of any policy changes will be."
2:08 p.m.
Earlier this afternoon, FOMC officials noted that "labor market conditions have generally eased and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low." Their latest statement stuck to the same tone as their previous one.
But while Fed Governor Michelle Bowman voted against the 50-basis point (0.5 percentage point) cut by the Fed in September, this time, she voted with the rest of the FOMC in favor of the 25-basis point reduction that took the federal funds rate to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%.
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Luzi Ann Santos
Moomoo Senior News and Community Manager
Former editor at Bloomberg, ex-commentary editor at Lazard. Posts aren’t investment advice. Views are just mine.
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TheOracleOfBroMaha : Nothing to model now? What planet is this guy from?
MAVA TheOracleOfBroMaha : Nothing is about right because he still needs to get some direction from the new administration. Plus he is not sure if he still has a job! So why bother!?
victorywp : "not allowed" or "now allowed"?![[undefined]](https://static.moomoo.com/nnq/emoji/static/image/default/default-black.png?imageMogr2/thumbnail/36x36 "undefined")
72296427 : about friendship and family
72296427 : Cynthia oldfield
Ultratech : one thing about powell is you understand what he's doing and respect that he's very intelligent and doing a good job by the book. trump would replace him with some incompetent yes man
TheOracleOfBroMaha : You don’t think he was a little behind on lower interest rates there, just a little?
Adrianlim90 : 1
105245147 : Powell's words are tough.
103826785 : about family
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