Barry Sternlicht, the CEO of Starwood Capital, recently expressed skepticism about the role of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in the robust U.S. economy.
What Happened: Sternlicht, during Tuesday’s episode on CNBC’s Squawk Box voiced his opinion about the Fed chair and the performance of the U.S. economy.
“It’s not Powell…he gets way too much credit,” he said.
Sternlicht added that companies like Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, Meta META and Google by Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG do not rely on interest rate cuts to decide their spending.
“The context of the current economy where half of the jobs are healthcare, government and education, those jobs aren’t dependent on interest rates, up or down,” he said.
“We had 3 million jobs since May of 22 in those three sectors of the economy, he [Powell] can’t impact that. He has impacted the housing market, which is bad long term.”
Why It Matters: The Fed is currently considering the potential impact of a second Trump presidency or a shift in balance with Vice President Kamala Harris as it must consider the potential impact of policy changes on the economy and interest rates. The Fed’s current Summary of Economic Projections is essentially a “constrained Harris” forecast, assuming no new shocks.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan has increased its benchmark interest rate and announced plans to reduce its bond purchasing program. This move is in stark contrast to the Federal Reserve’s potential rate cut plans, as hinted by New York Federal Reserve President John Williams.
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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari
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