U.S. President Donald Trump urged the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in order to "rocket" the U.S. economy to new highs. "Our Federal Reserve has incessantly lifted interest rates, even though inflation is very low, and instituted a very big dose of quantitative tightening," Trump said. A cut of a full percentage point would take the U.S. benchmark interest rate back to where it was in December 2017. As a candidate in 2016, he was critical of the central bank for keeping interest rates low, because he thought it favoured his Democratic opponent by stimulating the economy. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)In a previous generation, then-president Richard Nixon put pressure on more than one Fed chief to bend to his will on setting interest rates.

Source: CBC News April 30, 2019 19:31 UTC