Powell to appear on ’60 Minutes’ with Yellen, Bernanke

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will appear on Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes” for an interview on interest rates, the outlook for the U.S. economy and financial system cybersecurity risks, CBS announced Thursday.

Powell was interviewed by Scott Pelley in Washington, D.C., this week, CBS said, and will appear beside his predecessors, former Fed chairs Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen.

Powell has led the central bank for just more than a year and has faced intense criticism from President Trump, who appointed him to chair the central bank in 2017.{mosads}

Trump has blasted Powell and the Fed for raising interest rates four times since he became chairman in January 2018 and has reportedly considered firing Powell. The president argues that the Fed should aid his trade agenda by keeping rates low to reduce the value of the dollar and make U.S. exports less expensive for foreign countries.

“We have a gentleman that loves quantitative tightening in the Fed. We have a gentleman that likes a very strong dollar in the Fed,” Trump said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week.

“Can you imagine if we left interest rates where they were? If we didn’t do quantitative tightening? I want a dollar that’s great for our country but not a dollar that’s prohibitive for us to be doing business with other countries.”

Powell has brushed off Trump’s complaints and said the Fed has adjusted interest rates based on economic data, not political pressure. The chairman said last month the Fed would be “patient” with further rate hikes while the bank attempts to make sense of conflicting economic data.

Powell has sought to make the Fed more transparent by speaking more frequently and clearly than his predecessors, shying away from economic jargon and pledging to speak to reporters monthly.