"In the bowels of the US Federal Reserve this summer, two of the world's most powerful men, sporting glistening white hard hats, stood before reporters looking like students forced to work together on a group project. Allies of Donald Trump had spent weeks trying to manufacture a scandal around ongoing renovations of the central bank's Washington headquarters and its costs. Now here was the US president, on a rare visit, examining the project for himself."
"It looks like it's about $3.1bn. It went up a little bit or a lot, Trump said, as Jerome Powell, the typically calm Fed chair, vigorously shook his head. So the $2.7bn is now $3.1bn I'm not aware of that, Mr President, Powell quickly interjected, as Trump pulled out a paper from his suit pocket as evidence. I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed."
In late July President Donald Trump visited the Federal Reserve's Washington headquarters and publicly questioned the reported renovation costs, citing figures that suggested an increase from $2.7bn to $3.1bn. Fed Chair Jerome Powell immediately disputed that figure and denied being informed of such a change. Allies of the president had tried to create a scandal around the renovations. The president continues to threaten legal action over the project and expresses sustained anger toward Powell. Observers see this as an unprecedented, intensifying test of the central bank's independence. Some Fed veterans say the institution was designed to withstand such political pressure.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]