Fed's Waller says would accept job as chair if Trump asks, but so far no contact
"In 2019 the president contacted me and said, 'Would you serve?' And I said yes," Waller said in comments to Bloomgberg Television, referring to Trump's appointment of him to the Fed's Board of Governors. "If the president contacted me and said, 'I want you to serve,' I would do it. But he has not contacted me."
Waller's comments come amid near daily criticism by Trump of current Fed chair Jerome Powell over the Fed's reluctance to cut interest rates due to concern that the administration's trade and tariff policies will increase inflation.
Waller favors a rate cut at the July meeting because he feels the tariffs are likely to have a limited impact on inflation, and he is concerned the economy and private sector hiring are starting to slow.
Though the unemployment rate is low, Waller said underlying data "are not indicating a super healthy private sector labor market," and the Fed should "get ahead" of a possible hiring slowdown.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Alexandra Hudson)
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