'It's politics, stupid' for the US Fed

GOVERNMENT officials led by the president and lawmakers in Washington, including the heads of the nation's central bank have reiterated time and again that the US Federal Reserve is a politically independent institution. Politics, including elections at home and abroad would never affect the monetary policy decisions made by the Fed that more often than not tend to be framed in technical economic terms.

Let's not mention, please, the recent spat between the White House and coming congressional or presidential races. Indeed, you won't see them mentioned in statements the Fed releases after its heads make a decision. From that perspective, political references in addresses delivered by the chair of the Federal Reserve and other members of the US central bank can be compared to a high school providing its students with X-rated material to read.

But then to paraphrase what was once said about the members of another apolitical institution, the Supreme Court, even the Fed chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) read the newspapers (and in this day and age, they also browse the Internet) and they cannot be immune to the pressures of politics. And sometimes they even admit it.