Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell does not properly recognize the developments in the economic marketplace, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
When asked what President Donald Trump is looking for in a successor to Powell when his term ends this coming May, Vought said that "I think he's looking for a chairman that's not continually too late to the developments in the economic marketplace. And I think what we've seen with Chairman Powell, he was very late in the Biden administration to raise rates, to articulate the concern with regard to the Biden administration's spending."
Vought emphasized that "we all knew on the outside... that we were going to have an issue with regard to inflation. And we saw... recent historical inflationary levels that we hadn't seen before. And now he is too late to lower inflation rates. And so that is the kind of thing that we want to see [differently] in the next chairman of the Federal Reserve."
The Office of Management and Budget Director added that a Fed chair should have "an ability to recognize the developments in the economic marketplace. In this case, we want to be able to see lower rates and to have an ability to get the economy going.
"And one of the things we saw with Powell is that one of the reasons he was so late was because he didn't understand that inflation is largely a monetary phenomenon. He kept saying that inflation was transitory. He didn't tackle the problem. And now he's again too late."
Vought also pointed out that "we want an economic system that works for the American people. That includes the Fed. And the president has been very clear that all he's asking from the Fed is lower interest rates, because he thinks it's important."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.