Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell defended keeping the Federal Funds Rate steady in June per the Fed’s dual mandate: prudent monetary policy regulating the money supply that keeps inflation and unemployment relatively low and GDP happily growing along.

The Fed has insisted all year that it’s not time to cut interest rates yet on account of tariff uncertainty. However, as Opening Bell Daily has maintained for several months, the labor market data justify lower rates, as do the five consecutive months of cooler-than-expected inflation reports.

Donald Trump has said he will only pick a new Federal Reserve chair who will cut US interest rates, as he called on the central bank to slash borrowing costs to 1 per cent.