She added that policymakers do not discuss politics in the meeting and do not take politics into account while making the decisions and then she went on defend Fed’s policy moves.
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Janet Yellen has a message for Donald Trump: Stop badmouthing the Federal Reserve.
Yellen was asked a version of “Is that true?” four different times today.
First, the Fed doesn’t feel the need to rush into an interest rate hike like other central banks around the world, he pointed out.
In response to Hilsenrath’s question on Wednesday, Yellen emphasized that the Fed is a politically independent entity, saying, “I think Congress very wisely established the Fed as an independent agency in order to insulate monetary policy from short-term political pressures”. Its goals are to foster maximum employment and keep prices stable.
“I can say emphatically that partisan politics play no role in our position about the appropriate stance of monetary policy”, Yellen said. Former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, made criticism of the Fed a central theme of his 2008 and 2012 presidential runs. Just last week, he said Yellen should be “ashamed of herself” for keeping interest rates low and creating a “false stock market”. That puts the December 13-14 meeting as the only remaining candidate if the Fed indeed is set to raise rates this year.
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“I will assure you that you will not find any signs of political motivation when the transcripts are released in five years”, she said. Yellen, who has been involved with the Fed since the late 1970s, said she’s never been in a Fed meeting where politics was discussed. “It is important that we maintain the confidence of the public, and I do believe that we deserve it”.
