Trump Vs. The Fed, Or Trump Vs... Trump?

By Stacey Vanek Smith,

Cardiff Garcia

Published July 24, 2018 at 5:31 PM EDT

Last week, President Trump told CNBC that he doesn't like the Federal Reserve's policy of gradually raising interest rates. In particular, he laments that rising interest rates will lead to a stronger dollar, potentially exacerbating the U.S. trade deficit.

The dollar has strengthened this year, but if President Trump wants to assign blame for the stronger dollar, then he should save most of it for his own agenda.

Josh Barro of Business Insider joins us to discuss.

Links:

Trump is mad about Fed rate hikes, but he only has himself to blame for them.

Nominal Broad Dollar Index

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Stacey Vanek Smith

Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.

See stories by Stacey Vanek Smith

Cardiff Garcia

Cardiff Garcia is a co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, along with Stacey Vanek Smith. He joined NPR in November 2017.

See stories by Cardiff Garcia