Donald Trump thinks the Federal Reserve has created a “false economy” just to help President Barack Obama. He also believes that interest rates should change.
Speaking to a group of reporters on a flight to Ohio, the Republican nominee answered a question pertaining to the United States central bank’s intentions to raise interest rates later this month.
Trump explained that Janet Yellen and Co. are keeping rates purposely down “so that everything else doesn’t go down.” He added that the U.S. has a “false economy,” referring to the bubbles and “artificial stock market.”
“They’re keeping the rates artificially low so that Obama can go out and play golf in January and say that he did a good job,” Trump said. “At some point the rates are going to have to change. The only thing that is strong is the artificial stock market.”
The billionaire real estate mogul has regularly lambasted the Fed, while at the same time trying to be diplomatic. He has repeatedly accused the central bank of keeping rates too low for too long just to help the Democrats. At the same time, he conceded that he likes low rates (SEE: Donald Trump wants to keep interest rates low, prefers not to be ‘aggressive’ in paying off $20 trillion debt).
It really is hard to determine where Trump stands on Fed policy.
Delivering a speech during the central bank’s annual summer retreat in Wyoming late last month, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said that the case for a rate hike has “strengthened” due to positive economic data. However, since that speech was made, a wave of US economic data has been rather weak.
The ISM manufacturing and non-manufacturing surveys have fallen, the August jobs report was weaker than expected and auto sales tumbled three percent. Fed Vice Chair said that the August employment numbers would determine if a September rate hike would happen. Now it appears that it won’t, at least according to the CME Group FedWatch tool, which pegs the odds of a rate hike at 18 percent.
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