other countries around the world. as usual, powell led us down. the markets certainly weren t thrilled at the quarter-point cut. many investors had expected a full half point reduction. but the dow really went into a nosedive, down near 500 points after jerome powell seemed to suggest it might be one and done as far as lowering interest rates. we re thinking of it as essentially in the nature of a midcycle adjustment to policy. the markets climbed part way back up the ladder after powell clarified that the fed wasn t rolling out more cuts as needed. if president trump wasn t worried solely about interest rates. the fed s program of so-called quantitative tightening was also on his radar. for them to have done quantitative tightening and also higher interest rates simultaneously, i think was a big mistake. we have the all-time high in the history of the stock market very i think i would have been 10,000 points higher and i think we would have been in the 4 for less gdp.
china, the european union and other countries around the world. as usual, powell led us down. at least he s in a quantitative tightening which shouldn t have started in the first place, no inflation. we are winning anyway but i m certainly not getting much help from the federal reserve. back with the panel. jonathan, this president more than any other has attacked the federal reserve and the chair specifically. not only that but he s had a number of conversations with colleagues including the white house counsel about whether he has the authority to either fire jerome powell or demote him. he s been told he can t do that without cause, so there s been a lot of conversations behind the scenes. it late last year the president, according to two sources with direct knowledge, privately entertained the idea of replacing powell with kevin walsh, one of the people he was considering originally for the job. to say he s been deeply unhappy would be a gross understatement. he has described pow