Dear John,

The Trump campaign has every reason to want to create financial panic for their own short-term gain, but the fact remains, the Biden-Harris administration has created the most robust economy and the strongest COVID recovery in the world.

Still, the Federal Reserve is acting too slowly to cut high interest rates, causing unnecessary economic hardship, especially for lower-income Americans.

The American economy is still growing. We are not on the verge of a recession, but high interest rates make it harder to buy or sell a house, to run a small business, to increase hiring, and to grow wages, as underscored by July’s slower-than-expected jobs report.

In truth, Fed Chair Jerome Powell -- first appointed by Trump in 2018 -- probably should have begun cutting interest rates at the Fed’s last meeting rather than waiting until September (when the Fed will likely cut interest rates by half a percentage point).

The Fed’s current 5.3 percent rate is too high. The Fed’s goal of 2 percent inflation is too low. Lower-income people have been especially harmed by high interest rates -- which have heightened credit-card fees, car loans, mortgages, and rents.

Tell Fed Chair Jerome Powell: Don’t wait to cut interest rates. Working Americans will benefit from bringing down the interest rates now.

Trump doesn’t seem to realize it, but the stock market is not the real economy. The actual spending of actual working people is what determines when and how quickly businesses will hire more workers.

The average working person’s paycheck is not going far enough, and this is why employment slowed in July.

There are several reasons paychecks aren’t going far enough. One of these is that interest rates are too high. Another cause is that huge corporations have too much power and can choose to keep prices high artificially, even as profits and stock buybacks reach record levels. We need even stronger antitrust enforcement from the Biden administration.

The time for action is now. Tell the Fed: it’s time to cut interest rates immediately.

Thank you for continuing to press for a better economy for working people.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action