Trump vs the Fed

Welcome to The Money, where we break down financial news and provide the TL;DR version of how decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you.

A target has already been on the back of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, but things got testier this week. Earlier in the week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Bloomberg TV interview he thought about Powell's replacement "all the time".

On Wednesday, Powell said in remarks in Chicago that the central bank is going to have to wait and see how tariffs shake out before moving interest rates again. He also said the Fed may face a potentially difficult situation in which tariffs would boost inflation at the same time the economy was slowing and the labor market weakening. That combination would put the Fed's two goals of price stability and maximum employment at odds, he said.

Those comments prompted President Donald Trump to lash out on social media, saying the Fed should cut rates now and "Powell's termination cannot come fast enough." This isn't the first time Trump has criticized Powell. Powell's term officially ends next year.

Student loan borrowers bring down the average

Credit scores are dipping, partly driven by the resumption of federal student loan delinquency reporting on U.S. consumers’ credit, credit scoring agency FICO said.

The average FICO score that lenders use to assess risk fell to 715, down a point from January and two points from a year ago, FICO said.  The drop reflects a rise in 90+ day delinquencies in the past six months. The share of consumers in that category increased to 8.3% in February from 7.4% in January, a 12% relative rise, and the first time this figure surpassed the pre-pandemic January 2020 level of 8.1%.

No more tax-free status for Harvard?

The IRS may revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status after the Ivy League university refused to meet President Donald Trump's wide-ranging demands for changes in its policies, CNN and the Washington Post reported on April 16.

According to the Post, the Trump administration asked the IRS to revoke the Cambridge, Massachusetts university's tax-exempt status. CNN reported that the agency is making plans to do so.

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