President Donald Trump has cast Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s reluctance to lower interest rates as the biggest obstacle to aspiring home buyers. “People aren’t able to buy a house because this guy is a numbskull,

The President’s campaign to bend the independent central bank to his will is straight out of the playbook of populist strongmen and will likely go on for years.

“If they don’t dissent, then the stock and bond markets could rally significantly on expectations that the FOMC participants are leaning toward cutting [in September], thus placating the two potential dissenters,” said veteran strategist Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research.