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- President Trump took to Twitter to argue for a weaker US dollar, saying he is not thrilled with the greenback’s strength.
- He placed blame for the dollar’s strength on the Federal Reserve, once again saying the central bank should cut interest rates further.
- Read more on Markets Insider.
President Trump has escalated his fight against the US dollar.
Trump tweeted his distaste for the strength of the greenback Thursday, saying, "as your President, one would think that I would be thrilled with our very strong dollar. I am not!"
He went on to again lash out at the Federal Reserve for not lowering interest rates as much as he wants, saying that they’ve "called it wrong at every step of the way."
Trump has long been frustrated by the dollar’s strength and has even reportedly asked how to weaken it. The president abides by the school of thought that — by making exports cheaper — a weaker dollar would help the US compete against other countries.
In addition to his comments on the Fed, Trump also called out US manufacturers Caterpillar, Boeing, and John Deere. The greenback moved slightly lower against other major global currencies on the tweet.
Trump’s press for a weaker dollar comes as a so-called currency war has broken out globally as other nations also seek to weaken their currencies. China in particular has gotten in on the action, letting the yuan slide below a key psychological level on Monday. That, in turn, pushed equities to their worst performance of 2019, showing just how damaging the associated uncertainty can be.
Amid the back-and-forth with China, Trump has continuously singled out the Fed as his real problem. On Wednesday, he tweeted that the Fed’s failure to slash rates was a bigger threat than China, after a trio of rate cuts from New Zealand, India and Thailand spurred fears of a global slowdown.
"Incompetence is a terrible thing to watch, especially when things could be taken care of sooo easily," Trump tweeted. "We will WIN anyway, but it would be much easier if the Fed understood, which they don’t, that we are competing against other countries, all of whom want to do well at our expense!"
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See Also:
- MORGAN STANLEY: The pain from the US-China trade war is just getting started. Here are 3 dynamics that will dictate the market through year-end.
- It makes literally no sense that the White House just labeled China a currency manipulator
- Obama advisor Larry Summers warns the world is at ‘most dangerous financial moment’ since 2009 as global markets reel from trade war escalation
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Carmen Reinicke)