Is Trump the Reason the Fed Is Cutting Rates?
President Donald Trump's repeated calls for easier monetary policy may not be what's driving the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates on Wednesday.
But Trump's policies have set the table for it.
His aggressive tactics on trade, including 25% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods that prompted retaliatory duties on U.S. exports, have made companies uncertain about the future and more hesitant to invest.
The Fed's beige book, a collection of economic anecdotes from around the country, now regularly features an escalating and eclectic collection of trade-related impacts.
In...