
Trump may have broken Wall Street
CNN
This past April, when President Donald Trump started flirting with the notion of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, stocks and the dollar tumbled because investors worried that even talking about such a move crossed a red line. You can’t even joke about that, the Wall Street intellectuals told us — the central bank’s independence is simply too important.
This past April, when President Donald Trump started flirting with the notion of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, stocks and the dollar tumbled because investors worried that even talking about such a move crossed a red line. You can’t even joke about that, the Wall Street intellectuals told us — the central bank’s independence is simply too important. Powell himself said it was not permitted under the law, and a choir of Wall Street analysts chirped about the sanctity of the Federal Reserve’s independence. Cut to July: Trump is waving a draft of Powell’s termination letter in front of lawmakers, and Wall Street is cruising. Stocks remain near record highs. The dollar and bond markets briefly jolted but recovered after Trump denied reports he was preparing to fire Powell. This seems to point to two possibilities: Trouble is, there’s only one way to find out, and that involves crossing the red line that Trump has been inching ever closer to.













