Vice President Kamala Harris recently spoke to reporters at a Phoenix, Arizona, rally, claiming “the [Federal Reserve] is an independent entity and as president, I would never interfere in the decisions that the Fed makes.” This is in contrast to former President Donald Trump who has made comments in the past about whether or not the President should have some say in the policies set forth by the Fed.
Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman joins Morning Brief to break down how the presidential candidates differ on how the executive branch should work with the Federal Reserve.
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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
And Vice President Kamala Harris drawing a stark difference between herself and former President Donald Trump regarding potential central bank policy calling the fed an independent entity and saying she will not interfere with its decision making.
This comes after Trump said the president should have a say in fed policy here with reaction.
We’ve got Yahoo Finance‘s senior columnist, Rick Newman.
So Rick, it’s interesting, I was hearing a lot of commentary over the and about the initial Wall Street Journal report, they had access to a 10 page note that they say indicated former President Trump’s thinking on potential central bank policy moving forward.
And there’s a lot of commentary about how that memo should be released by the journal.
What what are you hearing in terms of reaction to the difference in in central bank policy from both candidates?
I think this is just confirming what we already know.
Uh Trump uh when he was president, I mean, he complained about the Fed all the time when it wasn’t doing what he wanted and what he generally wants is the fed always to be lowering interest rates and have the the lowest possible interest rates.
I mean, remember he uh he used to be a developer and he uh you know, developers borrow a lot of.
So that’s his bias.
He said last week at the press conference where the, the news conference with no news.
Um He said yes, he thinks the president should have some say in what the Federal Reserve does and the default position of almost every other president.
Uh going back to Jimmy Carter Nixon is an exception here is no, you stay out of the fed’s business.
Uh Let the Fed do what it needs to do because we’ve got political interference every place else in Washington.
So let’s at least let this one institution, which is the most important financial institution in the world.
Let’s at least let this institution operate without political interference.
Um That’s the default position.
Trump is the outlier here.
So not, no surprise at all that Kamala Harris would say, I’m not like Trump.
I won’t mess with the Federal Reserve.
All right, Rick, I, sorry about that.
We’re going to continue to watch and we’ll catch up with you next hour from the latest developments out of DC.
Rick Newman.
Thanks so much.
