Trump slams pathetic, slow moving Federal Reserve as the coronavirus hits the US economy

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

• President Donald Trump lashed out at the Federal Reserve on Tuesday and demanded the independent central bank lower rates.
• The call came as the coronavirus raised alarm about the US economy.
• Even before the outbreak, Trump repeatedly called for more aggressive measures including quantitative easing and negative interest rates.
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President Donald Trump lashed out at the Federal Reserve on Tuesday and demanded the independent central bank lower rates, as the coronavirus outbreak raised alarm about the US economy. 

“Our pathetic, slow moving Federal Reserve, headed by Jay Powell, who raised rates too fast and lowered too late, should get our Fed Rate down to the levels of our competitor nations,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “They now have as much as a two point advantage, with even bigger currency help. Also, stimulate!”

As the coronavirus outbreak dims economic growth forecasts, Trump has renewed attacks on the central bank and his handpicked chairman of the central bank. The president argues that US interest rate levels put the US at a disadvantage, though they are at historic lows. 

At an emergency meeting last week, the Fed made the deepest interest rate cut since the financial crisis a decade ago. Forecasters expect borrowing costs could hit the zero lower bound by this spring.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak, Trump repeatedly called for more aggressive measures including quantitative easing and negative interest rates. But those measures tend to signal weakness and times of severe distress in an economy.