While the meeting between an incoming president a Fed boss isn’t always immediate, speculators might have expected Powell to be summoned to the Oval Office more promptly.
The FOMC is federally mandated to operate independent of politics, in order to preserve the long-term health of the economy.
And Powell made it clear it is not his job to request time in Trump’s diary.
At the conclusion of the FOMC meeting yesterday—when Powell confirmed expectations that the base rate would be left unchanged—the Fed chairman said he would never actively try to set up a meeting with Trump.
“I’ve never asked for a meeting with any president, and I never will,” Powell told the press pack. “I wouldn’t do that. There’s never a reason for me to ask for a meeting, it’s always been the other way.”
He doubled down: “It’s never an initiative that I take… I don’t think it’s up to a Fed chair to seek a meeting with the president—although maybe some have done so. I’ve never done so, and I can’t imagine myself doing that.
“I think it always comes the other way, a president wants to meet with you—but that hasn’t happened.”
Jay Powell’s take on the economy has the potential to move markets, but in recent months he’s signaled that the outlook is too uncertain to chart a path forward.
Tensions include how aggressive tariff policy may prove to be, how inflationary the duties could prove for consumers, and by how much the economy may slow.
So while markets were keen to hear the chairman’s take, they were ready for a noncommittal response from Powell.
And “wait and see” was the message from the Fed chairman. When asked about his gut instinct when it came to the economy, Powell responded: “My gut tells me that uncertainty about the path of the economy is extremely elevated and that the downside risks have increased.
“The risk is, as we have pointed out in our statement, [is] the risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen but they haven’t materialized yet. They’re not really in the data yet.
“So that tells me, more than by intuition because I think it’s obvious actually that the right thing to do…is await further clarity.”
The current base rate of between 4.5% and 4.25% is only “somewhat restrictive,” he added: “We think the appropriate thing is for us to wait and see and get more clarity about the direction of the economy.”
