Summary
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is likely to signal again this week that monetary policy is on hold, buttressing the belief that he may steer clear of action through 2020 .
Rather than keeping its head down, the Fed has changed policy in one direction or another in each of the last 10 presidential polling years -- though in 2016 it didn't act to raise interest rates until after the November election.
In 2012 the Fed didn't move its benchmark rate, which was already at zero, but did announce its third round of large-scale asset purchases in September.
Breaking with more than a quarter-century of precedent, Trump has repeatedly lambasted the Fed and accused it of keeping credit too tight, most recently on Oct. 31, the day after it reduced rates for the third time this year.
Powell told reporters on Oct. 30 that it would take a "material reassessment'' of the economic outlook for the Fed to change its current 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent interest rate target range.
In describing the Fed's current strategy, Powell has referred to the midcycle policy adjustment in 1995 and 1996, when Greenspan lowered rates three times after raising them previously.
The central bank then kept rates unchanged for the rest of 1996 .
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