Donald Trump was fit to be tied on Monday, and despite the nascent rebound in US stocks (contingent on the White House not disappointing the market after promising to deliver a “massive” economic relief package), he’s still upset.
Although the Fed delivered a 50bps emergency rate cut last week and upsized repos on Monday ahead of a limit-down cash open for equities, Trump wants more. In other words, he’s a lot like STIR traders and Wall Street, who are now essentially demanding rates be cut back to zero.
Trump, though, resorted to slander on Tuesday. “Our pathetic, slow moving Federal Reserve, headed by Jay Powell, who raised rates too fast and lowered too late, should get our Fed Rate down to the levels of our competitor nations”, the president seethed, in an angry series of tweets. “They now have as much as a two point advantage, with even bigger currency help. Also, stimulate!” Here, for reference, is the comparison:
This “comparison” isn’t apples-to-apples. Different policy rates are appropriate for different economies and Trump still doesn’t understand (or refuses to admit) that one reason rates are higher stateside is that the economy is in better shape.
The cognitive dissonance inherent in Trump marveling at the policy rate divergence while simultaneously bragging about how much better the US economy is compared to his “competitors” is astonishing, albeit not at all surprising.
Trump went on to insist (we moved beyond asking a long time ago) that the Fed “must be a leader, not a very late follower”.
The Fed has, of course, been expanding its balance sheet in an effort to replenish scarce reserves following the September repo squeeze. Many commentators attributed equities’ inexorable run to new peaks to the open liquidity spigots, but over the past three weeks, the COVID-19 panic has simply overwhelmed any bullish impulse from the Fed’s reserve management operations.
QE “proper” (i.e., buying assets with the express intent to compress risk premia and drive investors out the risk curve and down the quality ladder) might help, especially given the support it may provide for lower-rated borrowers, but right now, it’s highly unlikely that anything monetary policy can do is going to be particularly effective.
Trump’s latest exhortations come after multiple banks revised their forecast for the Fed to reflect a return to (or close to) the lower bound in light of the virus. The Fed hasn’t traditionally shied away from moving in election years, and 2020 certainly won’t be an exception.
The Fed’s first term repo since yesterday’s upsizing announcement was more than two times oversubscribed, and there have been signs of dollar-funding pressure building up over the past week.
Whether Trump knows anything about that is debatable, but he’s unwittingly arguing for the same raft of measures that some short-end strategists are openly calling for – namely, rate cuts, liquidity lines, a promise to use swap lines, an uncapped repo facility and, if push comes to shove, QE.
Read more: Zoltan Pozsar Takes On COVID-19: ‘Use The Swap Lines, An Uncapped Repo Facility And QE’
Social distancing + rate cut-driven slowing of money velocity = recession #MAGA #PresidentBiden
Trump is right for all the wrong reasons. Rates need to be cut and Fed balance sheet expanded. But that alone is not going to solve our problems. Add good governance and fiscal stimulus to the equation. Jay Powell cannot remake the administration to be competent. And he cannot repair the executive’s oppositional relationship with Congress, especially the House. Pelosi (rightly) is going to exact a pound of flesh on Trump and the Republicans for a fiscal stimulus package. And the Senate Republicans in particular are not going to like it. But what choice do they have? The current trajectory places them in the minority in 2021. They need help and even then it might not save them. But if you are a Republican Senator in a halfway competitive race- that includes Mitch by the way, you are going to have to wade into these waters mighty carefully. You cannot gerrymander the Senate. My guess is some red states are going purple or even blue this election cycle.
I wonder if Trump is thinking about firing Powell “for cause”. As I recall, pretend economist Stephen Moore said that failing to lower interest rates in the face of an obvious need constituted cause. But I think Trump needs someone to blame more than a drop in rates. I doubt even Trump thinks that a rate cut will solve all his problems.