ifo Researcher Potrafke: Trump’s Meddling in Interest Rate Policy Likely to Fail

US President Donald Trump’s attempts to get the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates are likely to fail. For the period from 1972 to 2010, the ifo Institute examined how interest rates developed under right-wing and left-wing governments in industrialized countries. “The central banks do not seem to have bowed to the politicians,” says Niklas Potrafke, head of the ifo Center for Public Finance and Political Economy.