Douglas Holtz-Eakin: China’s Decision to Announce Tariffs Today Was ‘an Unmistakable Intrusion into American Politics’

EXCERPT:

HOLTZ-EAKIN: "It’s a clear escalation in what has been a longstanding campaign against the Fed and trying to force his hand to lower rates. That’s unmistakable. I think what I find interesting is that no one should have been surprised that China levied these tariffs. From the outset they have responded to every tariff increase with some sort of commensurate response and this looks exactly the same. Some on September 1st, some on December 15th, exactly the way the President laid out his additional tariffs. So that’s not surprising. They chose today to announce it and I think that was an unmistakable intrusion into American politics. They know the White House has been all over the map this week about whether the economy is in trouble or not, whether they need to do something or not, and they knew this would put additional pressure on the tension between the Fed and the President. And the President took the bait."