By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Federal Reserve officials were forced to scramble to understand what Trump’s victory meant for the American economy and world. The transcripts of Fed meeting transcripts show that this was the case from 2016, according to Fed transcripts.

One month following Trump’s victory on Nov. 8, 2016, there was laughter at the Fed’s policy meeting. There were warnings about the U.S.’ deep economic fissures and potential challenges to its independence.

Some interpretations of Book of Revelations say that three events occurring together could indicate the apocalypse. Let’s review,” St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said. This was a joke about the book that is the New Testament of the Bible. It refers to Trump’s triumph in the 2016 World Series.

The recent elections could signal a shift in U.S. economic growth prospects. He said that the short answer is “maybe” and that we consider this an upside risk. According to transcripts released by Fed Friday.

Fed staff quickly tried to predict whether Republican businessman Donald Trump would implement tax cuts, fiscal expenditure, tariffs on trade partners and new immigration regulations.

Some at the Richmond Fed were surprised by the market’s reaction, which was a spike in stock prices. Others noted that business contacts used words such as “exuberance” and “euphoria,” because they anticipated lower regulation and lower taxes.

These transcripts were released five years after the original statements. This gives us a glimpse beyond those of the day at the time into the way central bank policymakers dealt and dealt with an event that they knew would have profound consequences for their work as well as the Fed’s overall structure.

FED INDEPENDENCE

Trump showed an unconventional approach to his presidency even before his induction. For example, his comments regarding federal contracts via Twitter (NYSE 🙂 ridiculed the stock prices for companies like Boeing (NYSE :).

The Fed increased interest rates in December 2016 after years of concern about U.S. economic slowing. In 2017, and 2018, it continued with higher hikes, as Trump’s tax cut and fiscal policy led to more than expected growth.

Trump’s tariff policies and global slowdown in growth in 2019 saw the wind blow out of the sails. Fed officials also confirmed some concerns raised by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, after Trump’s victory.

Stanley Fischer, former Vice Chair of Fed, said that “if the incoming Administration changes the economic policy in several areas as radically as it promised during election campaign, we’ll, in retrospect view today’s interest rate decision to be the last of an age.”

The Federal Reserve’s current operations and independence will be challenged. Fischer indicated that we would be working in an environment in the which some of the assumptions concerning the United States’ role in global affairs, more generally, will need to be modified. According to Fischer, the meeting transcript.

Trump would publicly criticize Powell for raising interest rates after he appointed Jerome Powell as Fed Governor in 2018.

Dennis Lockhart was at that time the president of the Atlanta Fed. He turned his gaze inward and observed Trump’s win with huge support from white voters in rural areas seemed to be rooted in the economic divisions the central bank had to understand better.

“It seems to me that a lesson of the recent electoral cycle … is the public’s differential experiencing of the economy across geography, the urban–rural spectrum, and cohorts defined by educational attainment,” Lockhart said. Lockhart pointed out that Fed board presentation briefings had been added by staff to include information on unemployment gaps by race. He said, “It strikes my me this reporting is possible.”