"The economy roars", so let's lower rates

On Friday, President Trump stepped up his feud with the Fed on interest rates.

Vice President Mike Pence and White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Kudlow echoed President Trump's statement Tuesday and called on the Fed to lower interest rates, saying economy could handle more fuel.

"The economy is growing," Pence said Friday in an interview with CNBC shortly after the Labor Ministry announced that the unemployment rate had dropped to 3.6% in April, its lowest level ever for 50 years. "This is the time not only not to raise interest rates, but we should consider reducing them."

It is not unprecedented that politicians rely on the Fed to lower interest rates and give the economy the kind of shock that voters pay at the polls. President Nixon lobbied Fed Chairman Arthur Burns to keep his rates low just before the 1972 elections.

But it is rare for the White House to openly attack the Fed, badysts said. "It's not just breaking standards, it's breaking them," said Laurence Meyer, former governor of the Fed. "It's just amazing."

Just amazing

The amazing thing is not that Trump does something unusual. The unusual is the norm.

What is amazing is the logic used by the administration.

If you can not raise rates when "the economy is booming," you will never be able to raise rates because you do not raise rates when the economy is doing badly.

Economy booming?

We can discuss if the economy is booming. Despite Friday 's employment report, it is clear that the economy is slowing.

But this is not the argument presented by Pence. Pence wants to cut rates despite his badertion that the economy is booming. That's the amazing thing.