Trump slams Fed, says quantitative tightening is a killer

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump, renewing his attack on the Federal Reserve, claimed the stock market would be “5000 to 10,000” points higher had it not been for the actions of the US central bank.
“If the Federal Reserve had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points,” the president tweeted. “Quantitative tightening was a killer, should have done the exact opposite!”
The president delivered his latest assault on the Fed as his motorcade pulled into Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, for an outing.
His venting comes as his two recent picks for the Fed, businessman Herman Cain and conservative economist Stephen Moore, have come under fire, with several Republicans indicating Cain may not be able to win confirmation in the Senate.
It also comes days after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, told lawmakers at a Democratic Party retreat that the central bank won’t bend to political pressure, according to two people in the room for the closed-door event.
Trump picked Powell as Fed chairman, replacing Janet Yellen, but later indicated that he regretted the decision, and in late 2018 discussed the feasibility of firing him before appearing to decide against it. Trump has criticised the Fed’s rate increases as it tried to gradually move them to a level that neither stymies nor stimulates growth.
The rate hikes have slowed some segments of the economy, such as housing, but overall the US economic expansion continues, along with the lowest unemployment in decades and inflation near the Fed’s 2 percent target.