Donald Trump’s attempts to influence the US Federal Reserve could risk plunging America into a period of 1970s-style inflation and trigger a global backlash in financial markets, economists have warned.

After the US Department of Justice (DoJ) launched a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the current Fed chair, investors said efforts by the White House to pressure the US central bank to cut interest rates would put the world economy at risk.

Analysts drew parallels with the 1970s when US inflation soared after the then president, Richard Nixon, pressured the then Fed chair, Arthur Burns, to ease monetary policy to help smooth his 1972 election campaign.

Atakan Bakiskan, US economist at Berenberg bank, said: “If the Fed pursues an ultra-accommodative monetary policy despite higher inflation, the result could resemble the 1970s in a worst-case risk scenario.

“Moreover, if the Fed acts on politics rather than data, foreign investors could pull back on financing the US debt and seek new safe havens.”

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Sorry mate, but I was in the Finance Industry back then and the ZIRP policy came from the FED during the Obama Administration following the 2008 Crash.

    Further, that Administration’s response to the Crash was basically Save Asset Owners No Mater What And Have Everybody Else Pay For It.

    Frankly that was when I went from hoping Obama meant change to concluding he was even more pro-fatcat than previous US Presidents.

    And yeah, those things were lauded by Republicans and are behind the shit state of America now and I suspect even behind Trump’s wins, especially this last win, because they led to a complete total crash of social mobility in the US and spiked inequality to a level not seen since the Guilded Age, creating a lot of desperate poor working class people many if not most of whom easy prey for Trump’s style of swindle.

    Don’t let Trump’s profound Evil mixed with the two-sides brainwashing so prevalent in America mislead you into thinking Obama was any good for most people - Trump is harvesting a field that has was plowed and even fertilized by his predecessors as POTUS.