00:01Good day. In the meeting just concluded, the FOMC decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate
00:10by a quarter of a percentage point.
00:49Our decision comes at a time when the American economy appears to be strengthening.
00:54New hiring, private sector earnings, business capital investment. Each of these markers has improved in recent months and is pointing
01:04in a good direction.
01:06Credit flows have been robust, particularly for businesses. And as I said at the policy symposium in Jackson Hole, I
01:15would be hard pressed to describe broad financial conditions as restrictive.
01:19This view was widely shared by the committee. So we removed a dose of accommodation.
01:27Are interest rates now at a level that you would describe as restrictive or not? Thank you.
01:36I've described previously, I found it difficult to describe financial conditions as restrictive. I think I said I was hard
01:42pressed.
01:43What I heard around the table in the last couple of days is my colleagues were hard pressed to describe
01:49it that way, too.
01:52We removed a dose of accommodation so that financial and credit conditions would be more consistent with our ultimate objectives.
02:01That was the decision. That was our judgment. And we'll continue to evaluate that prospectively.
02:18Yeah, I do. I mean, I'm relying on Kevin, but he's got, you know, a very tough board. He's got
02:22a board that was put there by a lot of other people.
02:25And the interest rates are too high. They're not appropriate. And I told I talked to Kevin and I said,
02:33you might as well vote with the board because it's not going to matter.
02:35The board is very hostile. They're very political. They're doing the wrong thing.
02:40They're a bunch of politicians or people put on by politicians. And it's a shame because it's too high an
02:47interest rate.
02:47Despite that, the country barrels through everything because we're doing so well. But the interest rates are too high.
02:53We should be paying the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world because we have the strongest credit.
02:59If we wanted to get rid of deficits, which we could do with a swipe of a pen with every
03:03country, we'd make a trillion and a half dollars a year.
03:06We'd pay off our debt. We'd do all sorts of things. But we haven't chosen to do that. But at
03:12some point we will.
03:13No, no, I didn't convince him. I said, do what you want because it doesn't matter because he doesn't have
03:17the votes.
03:17No matter how good a job, he's a good man, Kevin Walsh. But no matter how good a job, he's
03:22got a hostile board.
03:23I want him to be independent. But it's my opinion. I'm very good at this stuff. Interest rates are too
03:28high.
03:29They're raising the rates to make Trump do as bad as they can possibly do.
03:33The problem they have is that we have the greatest economy in history.
03:37We have over 21 trillion dollars being invested in this country, which is five times more than we've ever had
03:43before.
03:44So they're raising that only for political reasons. And that's a raise against Trump.
03:49Mr. President, what do you think of...
Comments