OPINION:
The president is supposed to fire a Federal Reserve chairman only for cause, and now Donald Trump has it. An obstinate Jerome Powell is holding interest rates artificially high as he constructs a palace for himself.
New economic data bolsters the case for relief. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that inflation remained under control at an annual rate of 2.7%. By Joseph R. Biden’s fifth month in office, the annual increase in consumer prices was twice as high. Despite runaway inflation in the former president’s term, the Fed kept rates implausibly low until his second year.
Then, in mid-September, Mr. Powell made a massive in-kind contribution to the Kamala Harris campaign by slashing interest rates by half, stimulating the economy in the home stretch of the presidential race.
Today’s economic situation is far brighter than it was a year ago. Energy costs are dropping, and that’s