Source: Cailian
On Friday, the new governor of the Fed, Stephen Milan, said he had only a brief conversation with President Trump ahead of this week’s interest rate resolution and was not under any pressure on how to vote.
In the Fed rate resolution this week, 11 of the 12 Federal Reserve officials with voting rights supported a rate cuts of 25 basis points, while Milan was the only opponent, who had served as a senior adviser to the White House before being recognized as a member of the Federal Reserve Council this week.
Milan has called for a more substantial reduction of interest rates by 50 basis points, and he said the decision was entirely independent and I will do an independent analysis based on my own interpretation of the data and the economy, which is all I do, and is limited to these.”
Milan stressed: “He called on Tuesday morning to congratulate me on my job, and that’s all I did. I didn’t discuss with him how to vote, nor did I reveal where I was in the Economic Forecast Summary.”
The spot chart showed that seven of the 19 participants were not expected to lower interest rates again this year, while the other two were only expected to reduce interest rates once again.These predictions also showed that with the current outlook for stable economic activity, most officials are not expected to reduce interest rates again next year.
Since Trump opened his second term in January, questions about the Federal Reserve’s independence have been heating up.
Trump has been strongly urging the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates dramatically and has publicly attacked President Powell, calling him “Mr. Too Slow.”
At the same time, Trump also tried to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and said he would use "willingness to ease monetary policy" as a hard threshold when selecting Powell's successor next year.
In this context, the outside world has also questioned Milan's identity: at present, he is only temporarily leaving the post of chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers on a "vacation", but resigned informally, which is considered to have potential conflicts of interest. In response, Milan said that this concern was "somewhat ridiculous". He stressed that he only plans to fulfill his current term until January 2026.
“If the president told me that I would stay after the end of my term, I would resign immediately and there would be no hesitation,” Milan said, “it’s because someone questioned me, so I’d rather want to make my point clear in a full and detailed manner in a Monday speech.”
Milan will give a speech at the Economic Club of New York next Monday. This platform has always been an important stage for political and business leaders, and Trump himself has made a speech here.
Despite the controversy accompanying his appointment process, Milan said that at this week's FOMC meeting, the atmosphere remained friendly, including his interaction with Cook.
Milan said: “Everyone was very enthusiastic, very friendly, very polite, it was a very collaborative atmosphere and I am deeply grateful for it.
Earlier in the day, Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari also made a similar comment, saying that the arrival of Milan did not change the atmosphere of the meeting. "This is no different from any new member joining in the past. Everyone just says' Welcome aboard 'and then goes back to the normal work rhythm."