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US Former Fed Chair: Trump Doesn't Understand Economy!


Thu 28 Feb 2019 | 08:19 AM
Yassmine Elsayed

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Feb. 28 (SEE) – Janet Yellen, former chair of the US central bank, hinted at President Donald Trump that he doesn’t understand economic policy or the key purpose of the US Federal Reserve.

Speaking to American Public Media's Marketplace program, Yellen sharply criticized President Trump's economic knowledge. “Mr. Trump's focus on the US-China trade deficit was misguided,” she said.

Ms Yellen, who left the Fed in 2018 and is now at the Brookings Institution research group, also said that Trump's attacks on current Fed chair Jerome Powell were harmful to the public's confidence in the central bank.

Asked if she thought the president had a grasp of macroeconomic policy, she replied: "No, I do not."

"Well, I doubt that he would even be able to say that the Fed's goals are maximum employment and price stability, which is the goals that Congress have assigned to the Fed," Ms Yellen told the program.

On the trade gap with China, she said: "When I continually hear focus by the president and some of his advisers on remedying bilateral trade deficits with other trade partners, I think almost any economist would tell you that there's no real meaning to bilateral trade deficits, and it's not an appropriate objective of policy."