The US Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate on Thursday by a quarter-point in response to the steady decline in the once-high inflation that had angered Americans and helped drive Republican Donald Trump’s presidential election victory this week.
The rate cut follows a larger half-point reduction in September, and reflects the Fed’s renewed focus on supporting the job market and fighting inflation, which now barely exceeds the central bank’s 2 percent target.
Asked at a news conference how Trump’s election might affect the Fed’s policymaking, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that “in the near term, the election will have no effects on our [interest rate] decisions.”
Photo: AFP
However, Trump’s election, beyond its economic consequences, has raised the specter of meddling by the White House in the Fed’s policy decisions. Trump has said that as president, he should have a voice in the central bank’s interest rate decisions.
The Fed has long guarded its role as an independent agency able to make difficult decisions about borrowing rates free from political interference.
Yet in his previous term in the White House, Trump publicly attacked Powell after the Fed raised rates to fight inflation, and he might do so again.
Asked whether he would resign if Trump asked him to, Powell, who would have a year left in his second four-year term as Fed chairman when Trump takes office, replied simply, “No.”
Powell said that in his view, Trump could not fire or demote him: It would “not be permitted under the law,” he said.
Thursday’s Fed rate cut reduced its benchmark rate to about 4.6 percent, down from a four-decade high of 5.3 percent. The Fed had kept its rate that high for more than a year to fight the worst inflation streak in four decades. Annual inflation has since fallen from a 9.1 percent peak in mid-2022 to a three-and-a-half-year low of 2.4 percent in September.
When its latest policy meeting ended on Thursday, the Fed in a statement said that the “unemployment rate has moved up but remains low,” and while inflation has fallen closer to the 2 percent target level, it “remains somewhat elevated.”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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