Courtesy of Pam Martens
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at Press Conference March 3, 2020 to Explain Inter-Meeting Half Point Rate Cut
We write this with some trepidation that after this appears in print Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will stop taking questions at his press conferences or that all media questions will have to be routed through Vice President Mike Pence’s press office, as is now occurring with matters pertaining to the coronavirus. (We say that with only some facetiousness.) However, in this age of spin, facts matter more than ever.
First, a little background. After losing 3600 points the prior week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average staged a monster rally (more likely a short squeeze) on Monday, climbing 1293 points to close at 26,703.
At 1:34 a.m. (the wee hours of Tuesday morning) President Donald Trump posted a tweet to his Twitter page stating, among other things, that the Fed should ease and “cut rate big” adding that “Powell led Federal Reserve has called it wrong from day one. Sad!” The Federal Reserve prides itself on staunchly defending its independence from political pressure in its conduct of monetary policy. When the President tweets demands for what he wants the Fed to do, it unnerves the stock market.
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