The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that former U.S. Federal Reserve leaders and some Republican politicians supported Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Monday, criticizing the Trump administration's criminal investigation as coercive. The Globe's Mark Rendell writes that on Sunday, Mr. Powell released a video stating that the Department of Justice had issued subpoenas to the Fed, threatening a criminal indictment. The inquiry focuses on cost overruns for renovations at two Fed buildings in Washington and Mr. Powell's congressional testimony. However, Mr. Powell sees this as a pretext, as President Donald Trump has been pressuring him to exert more control over the independent central bank and encourage lower interest rates. Stock markets rose and bond markets remained relatively stable, with long-term yields rising slightly. CIBC economist Avery Shenfeld said that if investors begin to expect higher inflation, they will push up long-term bond yields, countering Mr. Trump's push for lower mortgage rates. (Central banks only control short-term interest rates; long-term rates are set in the bond market.) "No one [in the Fed] is going to vote for deep short-term rate cuts that are going to push mortgage rates higher."
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