As Fed readies to raise rates, Trump's 'plan' is really a threat
President Donald Trump appears to be on a collision course with the Federal Reserve for yet another political fracas about interest rates, just seven weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Trump has long demanded that America's central bank lower interest rates, not based on relevant economic data, but to create a political advantage for a president with a well-established history of damaging our economy.
That history – Trump's frenzied trade wars, his haphazard lack of a plan for his war in Iran, the resulting increases in costs for gasoline and diesel, the trickle-down impacts on prices for everything else – is now a central motivator for voters in the midterms.
Those elections will decide if Republicans retain control of Congress or lose it to Democrats eager to enforce oversight. That scares Trump as much as the prospect of increased interest rates.
Trump is trying to force the Federal Reserve to bend to his will
The Federal Reserve's board will meet on Sept. 15 and 16 to consider what to do about interest rates. Ahead of that, the traders surveyed for CME Group's FedWatch Tool on Sept. 14 saw a better than 90% chance that the Fed will hike interest rates.
That's because those traders are reading the economic signals.........
