A Fed Governor Waller FOMC dissent at this time to be seen as effort to curry favour with Trump

Nick Timiraos at the Wall Street Journal has a piece up ahead of today’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

Its detailed, but in brief:

• This week’s Federal Reserve meeting could see a rare development not seen since 1993: multiple governors voting against the Fed chair.
• The stage for this potential split was set weeks ago, reflecting the dynamics of monetary policy during an unfolding leadership succession.
• Chair Jerome Powell and most Fed officials are expected to stick with a cautious, wait-and-see stance.
• However, governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman—both appointed by President Trump—may dissent, having expressed support for rate cuts in line with Trump’s public calls for looser policy.

There is plenty more, here is the link to the gated article:

• Fed Governors Could Break Ranks as Trump Intensifies Powell Pressure

Towards the end of the article Timiraos alludes to Waller’s motivations:

• Waller has framed any dissent as a principled but rare move rather than one of reflexive opposition. “It is important to make sure that if you dissent, you do it carefully and you have the right reasons, and it’s not going to turn into a serial dissenting potential case,” Waller said in a recent Bloomberg TV interview.
• But Waller also has made little secret in recent weeks of his interest in succeeding Powell when his term expires. Some of Waller’s current and former colleagues see a dissent this week as his best chance at keeping his long-shot candidacy viable.

Politics is a dirty business, bringing it onto the Fed like this risks much damage.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.