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4 hours ago
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Trump keeps feeding uncertainty over Powell
Trump keeps feeding uncertainty over Powell Donald Trump inspects renovations at the Federal Reserve with with Jerome Powell, right, amid suggestions he was looking to fire the chairman over cost overruns. File photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump has said Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell will "most likely" stay in his position even amid his sharp criticism of the central bank's policies. In an interview with Newsmax that aired on Friday, Trump said he would remove Powell "in a heartbeat" and said the Fed's interest rate was too high but added that others have said Powell's removal would "disturb the market". "He gets out in seven or eight months and I'll put somebody else in," he said. Also on Friday, Trump called for the Fed's board of governors to usurp Powell's powers and criticized him for not cutting short-term interest rates. Posting on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Powell 'stubborn". The Fed chair has been subjected to vicious verbal attacks by the Republican president over several months. The Fed has the responsibility of stabilizing prices and maximizing employment. Powell has held its benchmark rate for overnight loans constant this year, saying that Fed officials needed to see what impact Trump's massive tariffs had on inflation. If Powell doesn't 'substantially' lower rates, Trump posted, 'THE BOARD SHOULD ASSUME CONTROL, AND DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!' Two of the seven Fed governors, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, issued statements on Friday saying they see the tariffs as having a one-time impact on prices and the job market as most likely softening. As a result, the two dissented at the Fed meeting on Wednesday and pushed for slight rate cuts relative to what Trump was seeking. Even though Trump, who nominated Waller and Bowman, has claimed the US economy is booming, he welcomed their arguments and what he called their strong dissents. After the Fed announced later in the day that governor Adriana Kugler will step down next week, Trump said Powell should follow her lead and leave, too. 'She knew he was doing the wrong thing on Interest Rates. He should resign, also!' Trump said on social media. Friday's jobs report showed a rapidly decelerating economy, as just 73,000 jobs were added in July and downward revisions brought down the June and May totals to 14,000 and 19,000, respectively. Trump sees the rate cuts as leading to stronger growth and lower debt servicing costs for the federal government and homebuyers. He argues there is virtually no inflation, even though the Fed's preferred measure is running at an annual rate of 2.6 percent, slightly higher than the Fed's 2 percent target. Trump has called for slashing the Fed's benchmark rate by three percentage points, bringing it down dramatically from its current average of 4.33 percent. The risk is that a rate cut that large could cause more money to come into the economy than can be absorbed, possibly causing inflation to accelerate. The Supreme Court suggested in a May ruling that Trump could not remove Powell for policy disagreements. This led the White House to investigate whether he could be fired for cause because of the cost overruns in the Fed's US$2.5 billion renovation projects . Powell's term as chair ends in May 2026, at which point Trump can put his Senate-confirmed pick in the seat. (AP/Reuters)
RTHK
4 hours ago
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Appeals court upholds LA immigration arrests ban
Appeals court upholds LA immigration arrests ban US federal officials are barred from detaining people based solely on 'apparent race or ethnicity', speaking Spanish or accented English, or being at locations such as a 'bus stop ... or day laborer pick up site'. File photo: Reuters A US federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court's decision temporarily barring US government agents from making immigration-related arrests in Los Angeles without probable cause. Rejecting the Trump administration's request to pause the lower court's order, the three-judge appeals panel late on Friday ruled that the plaintiffs would likely be able to prove that federal agents had carried out arrests based on peoples' appearance, language and where they lived or worked. President Donald Trump called National Guard troops and US Marines into Los Angeles in June in response to protests against the immigration raids, marking an extraordinary use of military force to support civilian police operations within the United States. The city of Los Angeles and other Southern California municipalities joined a lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union accusing federal agents of using unlawful police tactics such as racial profiling to meet immigration arrest quotas set by the administration. A California judge last month blocked the Trump administration from racially profiling immigrants as it seeks deportation targets and from denying immigrants' right to access to lawyers during their detention. In Friday's unsigned decision, the judges of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit largely rejected the administration's appeal of the temporary restraining order. The judges agreed with the lower court in blocking federal officials from detaining people based solely on "apparent race or ethnicity", speaking Spanish or accented English, or being at locations such as a "bus stop, car wash, tow yard, day laborer pick up site, agricultural site, etc". Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass called the order a victory for the city. "The Temporary Restraining Order that has been protecting our communities from immigration agents using racial profiling and other illegal tactics when conducting their cruel and aggressive enforcement raids and sweeps will remain in place for now," she said in a statement. Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, welcomed the ruling in statement: "This decision is further confirmation that the administration's paramilitary invasion of Los Angeles violated the Constitution and caused irreparable injury across the region." (Reuters)
RTHK
4 hours ago
- RTHK
Trump keeps feeding uncertainty over Powell
Trump keeps feeding uncertainty over Powell Donald Trump inspects renovations at the Federal Reserve with with Jerome Powell, right, amid suggestions he was looking to fire the chairman over cost overruns. File photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump has said Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell will "most likely" stay in his position even amid his sharp criticism of the central bank's policies. In an interview with Newsmax that aired on Friday, Trump said he would remove Powell "in a heartbeat" and said the Fed's interest rate was too high but added that others have said Powell's removal would "disturb the market". "He gets out in seven or eight months and I'll put somebody else in," he said. Also on Friday, Trump called for the Fed's board of governors to usurp Powell's powers and criticized him for not cutting short-term interest rates. Posting on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Powell 'stubborn". The Fed chair has been subjected to vicious verbal attacks by the Republican president over several months. The Fed has the responsibility of stabilizing prices and maximizing employment. Powell has held its benchmark rate for overnight loans constant this year, saying that Fed officials needed to see what impact Trump's massive tariffs had on inflation. If Powell doesn't 'substantially' lower rates, Trump posted, 'THE BOARD SHOULD ASSUME CONTROL, AND DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!' Two of the seven Fed governors, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, issued statements on Friday saying they see the tariffs as having a one-time impact on prices and the job market as most likely softening. As a result, the two dissented at the Fed meeting on Wednesday and pushed for slight rate cuts relative to what Trump was seeking. Even though Trump, who nominated Waller and Bowman, has claimed the US economy is booming, he welcomed their arguments and what he called their strong dissents. After the Fed announced later in the day that governor Adriana Kugler will step down next week, Trump said Powell should follow her lead and leave, too. 'She knew he was doing the wrong thing on Interest Rates. He should resign, also!' Trump said on social media. Friday's jobs report showed a rapidly decelerating economy, as just 73,000 jobs were added in July and downward revisions brought down the June and May totals to 14,000 and 19,000, respectively. Trump sees the rate cuts as leading to stronger growth and lower debt servicing costs for the federal government and homebuyers. He argues there is virtually no inflation, even though the Fed's preferred measure is running at an annual rate of 2.6 percent, slightly higher than the Fed's 2 percent target. Trump has called for slashing the Fed's benchmark rate by three percentage points, bringing it down dramatically from its current average of 4.33 percent. The risk is that a rate cut that large could cause more money to come into the economy than can be absorbed, possibly causing inflation to accelerate. The Supreme Court suggested in a May ruling that Trump could not remove Powell for policy disagreements. This led the White House to investigate whether he could be fired for cause because of the cost overruns in the Fed's US$2.5 billion renovation projects . Powell's term as chair ends in May 2026, at which point Trump can put his Senate-confirmed pick in the seat. (AP/Reuters)
