CNBC’s Jim Cramer speculated that the stock market “would probably go up” if President Donald Trump were to remove Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The new person “takes rates down, does what the president wants,” Cramer specualated on CNBC.
Lower interest rates are generally better for stocks.
“Powell is living in a conventional world,” Cramer said, and then used a baseball analogy to explain. “The president is the Yankees and Powell is the Toledo Mud Hens.”
Cramer wouldn’t rule out that Trump would oust Powell.
“You have to think the other way, which is, ‘Oh my, the president is saying ‘why not’ and he’ll figure out a way.’”
Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that the central bank should be independent and not under the influence of Trump in setting monetary policy,
"The last thing we need is a president threatening the chairman of the Fed on whether he is raising or lowering rates in tune with the president's politics," Pelosi told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
"You have to have an independent Federal Reserve," she added, Reuters reported.
The world’s most powerful central bank is making clear it thinks the law is on its side if Trump tries to remove Powell , Bloomberg explained.
White House lawyers have equipped Trump with a possible blueprint for demoting Powell by stripping him of his chairmanship and leaving him as only a governor, according to people familiar with the matter. But the Fed, which faces frequent attacks from Trump for not being more accommodating to his economic agenda, has hinted for the second time that it won’t back down easily.
In response to inquiries Tuesday about the White House review of the legality of removing Powell, Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith offered a direct response, saying the chair can “only be removed for cause.”
For his part, Powell has previously demonstrated his resolve: “The law is clear that I have a four-year term. And I fully intend to serve it,” he told the CBS News program “60 Minutes” in March.
The latest episode in Trump’s battle with the central bank was revealed as the Fed entered a two-day policy meeting, after which Powell will hold a news conference. Trump, meanwhile, officially launched his re-election bid on Tuesday, a campaign in which he’ll ask voters to keep him in the White House largely on the strength of the U.S. economy.
Material from Bloomberg and Reuters has been used in this report.
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