“Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying there’s a great thing happening for our country,” Trump said in remarks at the White House on Friday. “It’s a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody.”
That drew an immediate rebuke from former Vice President Joe Biden, the president’s presumed opponent in the November election. Not only did he take Trump to task for his comments on Floyd, Biden criticized the president for crowing about the May jobs number while millions of Americans are still unemployed.
Condemn Racism
In an unusual comment for the apolitical Fed, Powell also alluded to Floyd’s death in his opening statement at the press conference -- to condemn racism in the U.S.
“There is no place at the Federal Reserve for racism, and there should be no place for it in our society,” Powell said. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to participate fully in our society and our economy.”
Prior to the pandemic, Powell had taken particular pride in the success the Fed had achieved pushing down unemployment to a half-century low and in the process spreading the benefits of the recovery to black and other workers who’ve historically been left behind.
That success had come in the face of withering criticism from Trump that the Fed was needlessly holding back the economy by keeping interest rates too high. It was only after the central bank cut rates effectively to zero in March that the president allowed that Powell had finally gotten policy right.
Most Vulnerable
The Fed chairman expressed concern at Wednesday’s press conference about the disproportionate loss of jobs among women, black and Latino workers as a result of the coronavirus, saying that the central bank wants to return these groups to pre-crisis levels of low unemployment.
“Unemployment has gone up more for Hispanics, more for African-Americans, and women have borne an extraordinary and notable share of the burden beyond their percentage in the workforce,” he said. “That’s really, really, really unfortunate.”