Comment: One is never sure if Trump is smoking crack, or some kind of dissembling genius.
He has once again gone on an angry rant against China's govt, but wrapped within an even more stinging attack against the Federal Reserve...
"As usual, the Fed did NOTHING!" Trump tweeted on Friday, after Powell announced that he would "sustain the expansion" of the US economy, but not by slashing interest rates by a whole percentage point, as Trump has repeatedly called for. Instead, Powell is likely to lower rates by around a quarter of a percentage point, from their current level of 2.25 percent.
Interest rates are usually lowered during periods of recession to stimulate the economy, as low rates make borrowing cheaper and increase consumer spending and investment. However, when rates are too low, they can spur unsustainable growth and fuel rising inflation.
Crucially for Trump, a dramatic lowering of rates could help sustain the US' roaring economy heading into his re-election campaign, and insulate it from damage wrought by the president's ongoing trade war with China. Trump made no secret of this on Friday, asking "who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?"
Comment: Here, it's quite clear that he's insinuating the Federal Reserve is the real enemy of the United States.
Trump then revealed that he would step up his battle with Beijing with or without Powell's help. "Our great companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA" It is unclear, however, what legal mechanism Trump has at his disposal to force these companies home.
Comment: "Hereby ordered!"
Donald Trump, God-Emperor!
The president also announced he would slap further tariffs on Chinese imports, and will order postal carriers to search for and refuse packages of Fentanyl originating from China. Fentanyl is a deadly synthetic opioid that has contributed to the US' skyrocketing overdose rate; its misuse was declared a public health emergency by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2017. The Trump administration sanctioned three Chinese Fentanyl suppliers on Wednesday, and Trump has accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of not doing enough to curb the supply of the killer narcotic.
Refusing to back up Trump's trade salvo, Powell instead said that he would act to keep the economy ticking over, not to facilitate the president's mercantilist conflict with China. "Setting trade policy is the business of Congress and the Administration, not that of the Fed," he said on Friday.
Comment: Well, the Chairman's job is to dissemble, so why shouldn't the President?
"We only conduct monetary policy" is the core scam of the US central bank (like all such dens of iniquity). Once you control monetary policy, you essentially control trade policy. Along with everything else.
'The market' has responded to Trump by tanking 700 points...
Maybe this is what's behind Trump's ridiculously exuberant "nobody loves Jews and Israel as much as me" statements of late?
Is he flattering in order to deceive? He's practically goading Americans to chant "End the Fed! Rein in the money-lenders!"
Or maybe he's just having one of those days where he attacks everyone and sees who blinks first...
Update 11:15 CET
Trump has upped the ante against China...