Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on the Federal Reserve to change its policy stance after a government agency revised US jobs data to show weaker hiring in the year through March.
“They should, let's see if they will,” Bessent said on Fox Business Tuesday when asked if the Fed should recalibrate. He cited famed economist John Maynard Keynes for saying, “When the facts change, I change my mind — what do you do?”
Speaking hours after the revised jobs data showed there were 911,000 fewer payroll gains in the 12 months through March, Bessent said, “It turns out that we didn't have good facts.” In a posting on X earlier Tuesday, the Treasury chief said, “President Trump inherited a far worse economy than reported, and he's right to say the Fed is choking off growth with high rates.”
Bessent expressed confidence that Donald Trump's nominee to fill an open slot on the Fed board, Stephen Miran, will be in place soon enough to vote on interest rates at the next meeting.
He declined to respond when asked if he thought that Governor Lisa Cook — who's embroiled in a battle against Trump to remove her over administration allegations of mortgage fraud — shouldn't vote at the Sept. 16-17 meeting. Fed governors can only be fired “for cause,” and Cook has argued that Trump's move is illegal.
For his part, Bessent said, “Clearly, there is cause here.”
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