Reuters: Be Careful What You Wish For — Market-Reactive Fed Signals Systemic Risk

But the story the Fed is telling about the economy should give the Trump administration pause.

It isn’t the narrative of rebounding investment, higher productivity, and surging growth that administration officials offer, but one of shaky confidence, an economic recovery that may not be as sturdy as it seems, and risks that partly stem from Trump’s own actions.

Just as the Fed’s four rate increases last year were a product of better-than-expected growth nudged higher by some of Trump’s policies – a sign of economic strength even if the president called it otherwise – the policy shift this week was a sign the best days of Trumponomics may be over.

The move “was not driven by a major change in the baseline,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a press conference on Wednesday, but the fact that intensifying “cross-currents suggest the risk of a less favorable outcome.”