To be a “fly on the wall” is such a cliché, and yet for an investor it was so to be desired for the meeting that took place last week between President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. I, and probably every investor in the world, really would have liked to have been a fly on the wall in the White House for that.

The President has taken everyone opportunity to criticize (batter) the Fed chairman for perceived laxity in rate cutting in the face of a global growth slowdown, using some not very kind adjectives in the process. I mean was that meeting “Godzilla vs Mothra” or was it polite? Given the chairman’s generally unflappable demeanor in press conferences, perhaps the President was Godzilla but Powell was probably more like Fred Rogers.

I don’t pretend to know how you climb down from calling someone an enemy of the state, as Trump did Powell, but then the president said in a statement on Twitter that the Monday meeting was “very good and cordial.” That was probably the nicest thing Trump has said about Powell since the latter took up the reins at the Fed. OK everything’s good now—until the next time Powell doesn’t cut rates and the rest of the world does.

The Fed said Powell didn’t deter from the central bank’s view tha...

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