Tanking the economy just so you can lower interest rates is like breaking your own legs so you can get painkillers. You cannot spill enough ink to explain how bad, dumb, and borderline evil this all is.
It's not even Idocracy at this point. Even President Camacho looked for help from smarter people.
You don't adjust rates just because you want them to be lower, there's second order effects. I'd like them to be lower all the time, but there's consequences for that. Trump is going to keep making policy based off snap judgments, listen to nobody, and just keep digging economic holes.
> You don't adjust rates just because you want them to be lower, there's second order effects.
You can… in Turkey (Türkiye); from 2021:
> Erdogan is openly averse to high interest rates, claiming high rates cause inflation, which stands in opposition to mainstream economic theory.
> He has pressured the central bank to keep rates low to fuel borrowing and growth. Critics say the independence of the central bank has been severely damaged through political pressure.
> Erdogan’s decree on Saturday appoints Sahap Kavcioglu as the new central bank head. Kavcioglu is a banking professor and a columnist in a pro-government newspaper where he has argued for low interest rates.
> The first woman to lead the bank, Erkan began raising interest rates when she was appointed in June last year, launching a 180-degree pivot away from years of low rates under Erdogan that had sent inflation soaring and foreign investors fleeing.
Wagging the dog isn't going to work on the Fed. The real question is: will Trump find out the hard way and go down with it or will someone with a braincell stop him before this?
Another appointee follows the Trump Orbit Character Arc. It's really pretty consistent, from Jeff Sessions to Mark Mikey and about 5 secretaries of defense.
Trump apparently believes appointees are there to do what Trump communicates he wants done, and to take the blame if those things don't work out.
Tanking the economy just so you can lower interest rates is like breaking your own legs so you can get painkillers. You cannot spill enough ink to explain how bad, dumb, and borderline evil this all is.
http://archive.is/https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-bankin...
https://archive.is/ddyQf
It's not even Idocracy at this point. Even President Camacho looked for help from smarter people.
You don't adjust rates just because you want them to be lower, there's second order effects. I'd like them to be lower all the time, but there's consequences for that. Trump is going to keep making policy based off snap judgments, listen to nobody, and just keep digging economic holes.
> You don't adjust rates just because you want them to be lower, there's second order effects.
You can… in Turkey (Türkiye); from 2021:
> Erdogan is openly averse to high interest rates, claiming high rates cause inflation, which stands in opposition to mainstream economic theory.
> He has pressured the central bank to keep rates low to fuel borrowing and growth. Critics say the independence of the central bank has been severely damaged through political pressure.
> Erdogan’s decree on Saturday appoints Sahap Kavcioglu as the new central bank head. Kavcioglu is a banking professor and a columnist in a pro-government newspaper where he has argued for low interest rates.
* https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/20/turkeys-erdogan-sac...
More recently in 2024:
> The first woman to lead the bank, Erkan began raising interest rates when she was appointed in June last year, launching a 180-degree pivot away from years of low rates under Erdogan that had sent inflation soaring and foreign investors fleeing.
* https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/3/turkey-appoints-fati...
In 2024 a court ruled that the President could not just fire central bank heads:
* https://www.brecorder.com/news/40306881/turkey-court-loosens...
Wagging the dog isn't going to work on the Fed. The real question is: will Trump find out the hard way and go down with it or will someone with a braincell stop him before this?
Goodnight, America
Reminder that Trump initially appointed Powell (and Biden renewed him):
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Powell#Federal_Reserve_...
Another appointee follows the Trump Orbit Character Arc. It's really pretty consistent, from Jeff Sessions to Mark Mikey and about 5 secretaries of defense.
Trump apparently believes appointees are there to do what Trump communicates he wants done, and to take the blame if those things don't work out.