US Federal Reserve is heading for a jolt from the President’s office

In his first month as a central banker, Stephen Miran talked publicly about the US economy at more than a dozen events and media interviews. The Fed’s newest Governor brings a Trump perspective on the economy.

The Federal Reserve’s latest policy maker has an unconventional perspective on the US economy that’s proving tough to sell. In September, US President Donald Trump appointed Stephen Miran, one of his top economic advisers, to temporarily fill a vacated seat on the Fed’s powerful Board of Governors. So far, Miran has participated in two Fed meetings — and broken ranks with the vast majority of Fed officials each time.

At the central bank’s October policy meeting, Miran dissented from Fed officials’ decision to lower interest rates by a quarter point, backing a larger, half-point cut instead, just as he did in September.

He hasn’t wasted any time to leave a first impression in other ways, too. In his first month as a central banker, Miran spoke publicly about the US economy at more than a dozen events and media interviews. Fed officials typically do only about a handful of public engagements in their first month.

Like Trump, Miran has repeatedly called for aggressive interest rate cuts. He has argued that borrowing costs are exerting more pressure on the economy than most think and that there’s “substantial disinflation” coming down the pike — views Miran proclaims as “out of consensus.”
He reiterated his stance in a Wednesday interview with Yahoo Finance.

“I certainly wouldn’t characterize anything that he’s saying as ridiculous,” David Seif, chief economist for developed markets at Nomura, said in an interview with CNN after he moderated a discussion with Miran in Washington, DC. “It’s more of a debate on the inputs that he’s putting into his economic modeling, which are controversial.”

“I think only time will tell if he ends up being right,” Seif said. Miran’s rationale for significant rate cuts is mostly based on how he views Trump’s sweeping economic policies and his expectation that Trump’s tariffs won’t stoke inflation. 

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