U.S. President Donald Trump is again criticizing the Federal Reserve, this time over its lack of response in the wake of the coronavirus.
Trump said over the weekend that it was "about time" the U.S. central bank acted like a "leader" and again cut interest rates as stock markets plunge on fears of the growing impact of the coronavirus.
"If you look at the Fed, it has a massive impact, lots of it is psychological and lots of it is fact," Trump said at a White House press conference to discuss the administration’s response to the coronavirus.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said last Friday that the door remains open to a rate cut, citing the "evolving risks" posed to the U.S. economy from the virus.
"The fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong," Powell said in a four-sentence statement issued late Friday. "However, the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook. We will use our tools and act as appropriate to support the economy."
Trump has long pushed the central bank to lower rates, stating that his preference would be to get rates down to 0%.
"This is something I think they should’ve done even beyond this and before this," Trump said, referring to the coronavirus scare. "We should have the lowest interest rates; we don’t have the lowest interest rates."
Trump even went so far as to praise negative interest rates in certain countries -- although such drastic moves by the central banks of Switzerland, Japan and others have been made in an effort to stimulate stubbornly weak economic growth.
Trump also said he was confident in the U.S. stock market, after a week that saw the biggest loss in the S&P 500 index since 2008. The benchmark index is riding a streak of seven straight daily losses.
"The markets will all come back," Trump said. "The markets are very strong."
