Powell pushes back on Musk's claim Fed is 'absurdly overstaffed'
Wharton School finance professor emeritus Jeremy Siegel gives his take on the Federal Reserve's decision to leave rates unchanged on ‘The Claman Countdown.’
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pushed back Wednesday on billionaire Elon Musk's claim the central bank is bloated when he was asked it them during a press conference.
Elon Musk, the leader of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), wrote in a post on X last month, «The Fed is absurdly overstaffed.»
Powell was asked about those remarks by FOX Business' Edward Lawrence at a press conference after the central bank's announcement it would hold interest rates steady.
«We run a very careful budget process where we're fully aware. We owe that to the public, and we believe we do that. I've got no further comment on that, thanks,» Powell responded.
FEDERAL RESERVE HOLDS INTEREST RATES STEADY AMID INFLATION UNCERTAINTY
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank has a careful budgeting process. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Powell and the Fed have faced political criticism from Musk before.
In May, Musk posted that the «Fed has a crazy high number of employees.»
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX also said last summer the Fed was too slow in cutting interest rates, writing on X in August that the Fed «needs to drop rates» and has been «foolish not to have done so already.»
ELON MUSK'S DOGE MAKES ANOTHER HIRING PUSH
Elon Musk has criticized Powell and the Fed multiple times. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Fed cut interest rates at its meeting in September for the first time since March 2020 as inflation cooled from a 40-year high it reached in June 2022.
The central bank cut
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