Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

As of market close April 21, major US stock indices have fallen by double-digit percentages since the beginning of the year, while bond yields — the interest rates the US government owes on money it borrows — continue to rise. But US president Donald Trump wants the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and bears an ongoing grudge against the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell, for refusing to do so.

In Trump’s view, “Mr. Too Late, a major loser” should, but isn’t, “pre-emptively” acting with sufficient alacrity to rescue the American economy from the consequences of Trump’s own economic idiocy.

Powell makes a convenient scapegoat, especially since he can’t be fired (though Trump occasionally pretends otherwise) and has more........

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