Donald Trump’s vexed relationship with America’s central bank took an ugly turn this week, and for once, the president was not the aggressor.
A year of presidential complaints about rising interest rates has had lawyers dusting down the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Mr Trump believes the ambiguously worded statute gives him the right to fire Jay Powell, the man he appointed as Fed chair at the end of 2017. So far the president has contented himself with trying to influence Mr Powell’s ways instead, branding the former Carlyle Group partner an “enemy” of America, and likening him to “a