All posts tagged "Federal Reserve"

President Donald Trump's renewed push against a Federal Reserve official has dropped his own hand-picked central bank chief into an awkward position.

Trump's new effort to remove Fed Gov. Lisa Cook puts Fed Chair Kevin Warsh on the hook to defend the institution's independence from the president who installed him, Politico reported Friday.

Trump, whom the Supreme Court previously blocked from ousting Cook over due process concerns, announced Friday that he has formed a panel of administration officials to review her statements on home loans, which he and his allies have claimed amount to mortgage fraud. He has demanded she appear at a White House hearing next month to answer the allegations....

The Justice Department has declined to reopen its criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over cost overruns tied to the central bank's headquarters renovation, dealing a setback to President Trump's long-running effort to see his frequent target prosecuted.

According to The Guardian, a department spokesperson confirmed the decision Friday, though Attorney General Todd Blanche told Bloomberg News, which first reported the news, that he isn't entirely closing the door on further scrutiny of the project's oversight if new evidence of wrongdoing surfaces.

The move follows a Wednesday finding from the Fed's own inspector general, which concluded there were no grounds for a criminal referral and no evidence of administrative misconduct tied to the overruns. Even so, the watchdog's determination that oversight of the project had been lax was enough to reignite Trump's calls for Powell's resignation, continuing a pattern of criticism Trump has directed at Powell across both his presidencies....

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board says a new watchdog report has ended President Donald Trump's criminal pursuit of Jerome Powell.

In an editorial published on Wednesday, the board wrote that the Federal Reserve inspector general found poor management but no criminal conduct in the central bank's headquarters renovation. It also called on the former Fed chair to step down from the board of governors.

Fed Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report Wednesday. It examined cost overruns on the renovation of the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building and an office complex across the street. The project was budgeted at $1.3 billion. The latest estimate has nearly doubled to $2.4 billion, and the work is running about three years behind schedule....

President Donald Trump demanded former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell resign in a Truth Social tirade over the central bank's renovation.

In a Wednesday Truth Social post, Trump said Powell should be "forced to resign, IMMEDIATELY" from the Fed's board, and that if he doesn't, "he should be sued, at the highest level, by the United States Government, for either corruption or incompetence." Trump also claimed he "could have done a far better Renovation for 25 Million Dollars" and insisted he does not want the building named after him. Trump claimed the report pointed to an "absolutely unheard of" situation Powell created.

The post came after the release of an inspector general report that criticized the board's cost control but found no grounds to believe a violation of criminal law took place. Trump threatened, "I have asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to study the report and make a determination as to what to do."...

Political analyst David Pakman said things "just got really awkward" for President Donald Trump after his hand-picked Federal Reserve chairman voted to raise interest rates.

In a Thursday episode of "The David Pakman Show," Pakman argued the rate hike laid bare an alarming "contrast" between Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh.

Pakman explained that Trump hired Warsh specifically to lower rates, but the Fed "unanimously decided" to do the opposite and raise its benchmark by a quarter point....

President Donald Trump reacted to a rate hike by the Federal Reserve by framing it as a personal attack on him.

The Federal Reserve announced the rate hike on Wednesday, but Trump previously attacked former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for not decreasing interest rates. The rate hike came under Kevin Warsh's leadership, the chairman Trump elevated to the job in May after months of attacking Powell.

Trump addressed the rate hike while speaking with reporters before a political rally in North Carolina, and it marked his first comments on the rate hike following a Truth Social meltdown. Trump told reporters that before the rate hike, the United States had the "lowest interest rate anywhere in the world because we're the best." He then began to speak in the third person to explain the Federal Reserve's decision to increase interest rates....