Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran told CNBC on Friday that he spoke only briefly to President Trump before this week’s interest rate decision and was not pressured on how to vote.Miran, who voted against the quarter percentage point reduction in favor of a move twice that size, said he made his decision independently.”He called me Tuesday morning to congratulate me, and that was it,” the central banker said during a “Money Movers” interview. “I did not talk to him about how I vote. I did not talk to him about about my dots in the [Summary] of Economic Projections.”Not only did Miran vote against the quarter-point move but also his “dot” for where he sees the fed funds rate at the end of this year was well below the rest of the 19 participants at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. He also views rates being lower than most of the other officials.Questions over Fed independence have intensified since Trump took office for his second term in January.The president has been pushing hard for the Fed to lower interest rates aggressively, openly name-calling Chair Jerome Powell, whom he has nicknamed “Too Late.” In previous administrations, pressure on the Fed generally was done in a more discrete manner.Also, Trump has sought to oust Governor Lisa Cook, and has said he would litmus-test Powell’s replacement next year for a willingness to ease monetary policy …
