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There’s still time to collect the pandemic-era $1,400 IRS stimulus check by April 15. It’s your final chance to do so.
Filers who never received the funds can claim the recovery rebate credit on their 2021 federal return.
You can check the status of your payment by creating an IRS online account.

Lpettet | Getty

The federal tax deadline is less than one week away — and there’s still time to collect a pandemic-era IRS stimulus check. It’s your final chance to do so.
If you’re unsure if you received the money, there’s a simple way to check via your IRS account online, tax experts say.

The 2021 stimulus payments were worth up to $1,400 per individual, or $2,800 per married couple. A family of four could receive up to $5,600 with two eligible dependents.
Filers who never received the funds could claim the recovery rebate credit on their 2021 federal return. The last chance for that credit is the 2024 tax deadline on April 15, according to the IRS.
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You’re eligible for the full recovery rebate credit with up to $75,000 in adjusted gross income as a single filer or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly for 2021.
The phaseout begins with earnings above that and eligibility falls to zero once adjusted gross income reaches $80,000 for single filers or $160,000 for married couples filing together.

The ‘best place to look’ for stimulus checks

The IRS in December unveiled plans to send “special payments” to 1 million taxpayers who didn’t claim the 2021 recovery rebate credit on tax returns for that year.  
Most payments should have arrived via direct deposit or mailed paper check by late January 2025, according to the agency. 
You can create a login for your IRS online account to check the status of your economic impact payments, including the 2021 stimulus check.

“That’s the best place to look,” said Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida.
After logging into your account, you can find stimulus check information in the “tax records” section under the “records and status” toolbar. 
You can also check the “tax records” section to see if you filed a return for 2021. While some taxpayers don’t earn enough to have a filing requirement, you must submit your 2021 return to claim the recovery rebate credit for your stimulus payment, Lucas explained.

File your 2021 return if ‘there’s any doubt’

In some cases, online accounts show the IRS issued stimulus checks, but filers say they never received the money, said Syracuse University law professor Robert Nassau, director of the school’s low-income tax clinic.
“If there’s any doubt” about your payment, it’s better to file your 2021 return and claim the recovery rebate credit before April 15, he said. Otherwise, you could miss the deadline and lose your chance to collect the money, Nassau added.  More

Families saving for their children’s college education in a 529 college savings plan may be on edge amid the recent market volatility.
Many 529 plans use an age-based asset allocation — meaning the mix of investments is based on the beneficiary’s age and time horizon, and typically becomes more conservative as they approach college enrollment age.
“A 5 year-old has a long time horizon, whereas someone entering [college] this fall should not have that much at risk,” said Barry Glassman, a certified financial planner and the founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services.

D3sign | Moment | Getty Images

It’s an uneasy time for the many families who rely on the stock market’s returns to send their children to college.
Stocks have been in the red amid President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy and worries of a global trade war. The S&P 500 dropped around 15% between when Trump took office on Jan. 20 and Apr. 7, according to Morningstar Direct.

The index shed almost 11% in the two days of trading ending Friday, and continued its decline Monday. It was little changed Tuesday afternoon.
State-sponsored 529 college savings plans, like other investment accounts, may see the market selloff reflected in their balances. These plans, which are named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, allow parents to invest money and then withdraw it tax-free to cover certain education expenses.
Fortunately, you have options if a college bill is due soon, financial experts say. Meanwhile, if your child is still young, it may actually be a good time to buy stocks at a discount.
“The stock market will eventually recover,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
At least that’s what history has shown. If an investor put $10,000 into the S&P 500 index on Jan. 3, 2005, and left that money untouched until Dec. 31, 2024, they would have amassed $71,750, for a 10.4% annualized return over that time, according to JPMorgan Asset Management’s research.

Here’s what college savers should know during the market volatility.

Age-based risk should protect many investors

Many 529 plans use an age-based asset allocation — meaning the mix of investments is based on the beneficiary’s age and time horizon, and typically becomes more conservative as they approach college enrollment age. In other words, families likely have very little invested in stocks by the time college is around the corner, and more in investments like bonds and cash. That can help blunt their losses.
“A 5 year-old has a long time horizon, whereas someone entering [college] this fall should not have that much at risk,” said Barry Glassman, a certified financial planner and the founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services.
Another benefit of the age-based investment strategy is that the funds automatically rebalance to sell high and buy low, added Glassman, who is also a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.
“So not only are they getting less risky over time, but they have been taking profits as stocks have soared to bring risk back into check,” he said.
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Parents should check to see if their 529 plan account is invested in “a dynamic” portfolio, Kantrowitz said.
“The dynamic portfolios change the asset allocation either by age or enrollment date,” he said.
Typically, the age-based accounts start off at the time of the child’s birth with 80% to 90% in stocks, and gradually reduce that share to under 30% as college approaches, Kantrowitz said.

Short-term workarounds to preserve your 529

If you’re facing an imminent college bill and see that your 529 account balance has taken a big hit of late, you still have options to avoid drawing down the balance and to give stocks time to potentially recover, experts said.
You can use other potential cash savings or income to try to delay a 529 plan distribution until the market comes back, Kantrowitz said.

Another workaround would be to borrow federal student loans for now, with the aim of later taking a qualified distribution from the 529 plan to pay off the debt.
Families can potentially use their 529 college savings account to repay student debt for a beneficiary without incurring taxes or penalties, Kantrowitz explained. But the lifetime limit of the option is $10,000, he said.

‘Families should save more now’

Families with many years ahead of them before sending their child to college should see the current moment as investment opportunity, Glassman said.
“During market turmoil, they are scooping up bargains to invest for the future,” Glassman said.
Kantrowitz agreed.
“Pulling out funds now will lock in losses,” Kantrowitz said. “If anything, families should save more now that the market is down.”

Over longer periods, the stock market has historically given more than it takes.
Advisors say it’s best for investors, once they’ve set up a smart allocation strategy, to look away from headlines and let the market do its thing.
As stressful as the last few weeks may have been, such dips are not unusual, Kantrowitz pointed out. The stock market typically experiences at least three 10% drops and at least one 20% drop in any 17-year period, the typical timeline from birth to college, he added. More

As tariff volatility continues, you could miss the chance for tax-loss harvesting, which uses losses to offset other portfolio gains, experts say.
However, you need to know about the so-called “wash sale rule,” which blocks the tax break for buying a “substantially identical” asset within 30 days before or after the sale.

Sean Anthony Eddy | E+ | Getty Images

Amid stock market volatility, many investors are seeking portfolio protection. But they could be missing a prime tax planning opportunity, experts say.  
The strategy, known as tax-loss harvesting, is selling losing assets from a brokerage account to offset other investing gains to lower taxes. Losses are typically used to offset gains, such as those from investment sales or capital gains distributions from mutual funds or exchange-traded funds.

Once losses exceed profits, you can subtract up to $3,000 from regular income. After that, you can carry excess losses into future tax years indefinitely.       
“It’s looking for a silver lining on a pouring, rainy, cloudy day,” said certified financial planner Sean Lovison, founder of Philadelphia-area Purpose Built Financial Services. 
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Investors should weigh tax-loss harvesting opportunities anytime there’s stock market volatility, experts say. 
“That should be throughout the year,” said Lovison, who is also a certified public accountant. 

Tax-loss harvesting could be attractive with the S&P 500 Index still down more than 15% from an all-time high in February as of midday Tuesday. The index briefly entered bear market territory — more than 20% off its record — during Monday’s session amid tariff uncertainty.    
Here are some key things to know about tax-loss harvesting, financial advisors say.

You need a ‘very granular’ strategy

While tax-loss harvesting sounds simple, the current market pullback requires a “very granular” approach, according to CFP Judy Brown at SC&H Group in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area.
After many years of market growth, investment losses could include more recent purchases, said Brown, who is also a certified public accountant. She has been busy identifying specific “tax lots,” which are transaction records showing an asset’s purchase date and price.
You need systems to “quickly find those lots” to sell for the tax-loss harvesting benefit, Brown said.

Know the ‘wash sale’ rule

One of the perks of tax-loss harvesting is that you can sell assets for a loss and reinvest a similar investment to maintain exposure, Lovison said. 
But you need to know about the “wash sale rule,” which blocks the tax break for buying a “substantially identical” asset within 30 days before or after the sale, according to the IRS.
While individual stocks may be easy, there’s less IRS guidance on how “substantially identical” applies to mutual funds and ETFs, experts say. 
For example, you could sell one large cap fund family for another from a different family when the holdings are slightly different, Lovison said.  
But if you’re repurchasing the same exact index holding identical funds, “that might not pass the [IRS] sniff test,” he said.   More

The S&P 500 two-day selloff on Thursday and Friday was the worst since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The market lost about 11%.
Investors are nervous about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and an escalating trade war. China announced retaliatory tariffs.
They fear what a trade war may mean for company profits and the U.S. economy.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The stock market has been throwing a temper tantrum, fueled by fear of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and the specter of an escalating global trade war.
Americans may wonder why trade policy has made stock investors so skittish.

At a high level, investors are nervous that a prolonged trade war poses significant risks for corporate profits and the U.S. economy, according to investment analysts.
That’s not a foregone conclusion, however. The Trump administration could strike trade deals and blunt the overall impact, for example, experts said.
“But if that doesn’t happen, the market may still be a long way from the bottom,” Thomas Mathews, head of Asia-Pacific markets at Capital Economics, wrote in a note on Monday.

The scope of the stock sell-off

The S&P 500 shed almost 11% in the two days of trading ended Friday.
It was the worst two-day stretch for the U.S. stock benchmark since March 12, 2020 — in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic — and the fourth worst since 1950, according to Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management.

Stocks briefly entered “bear market” territory — meaning they’d fallen 20% from their recent peak — during trading on Monday before paring some of those losses.

The sell-off came after Trump announced a sweeping plan Wednesday to put a 10% baseline tariff on U.S. trading partners. He set significantly higher rates for nations including China and traditional allies like European Union members.
Their scope caught many investors off guard.
The announcement “was more significant than most expected, so we had a material sell-off” in the stock market, Chris Harvey, head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in an e-mail.

Wall Street fears a hit to growth

The stock market is a forward-looking barometer of investor sentiment — and tends to fall when investors sense collective danger.
The fear is that tariffs will dent growth for publicly listed companies and the broader U.S. economy. Wall Street has raised its odds for a U.S. recession.
Tariffs are a tax paid by U.S. companies that import goods from abroad, and they therefore raise costs for U.S. businesses. Companies may eat some of that cost to avoid raising prices for consumers, eroding profits.
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But economists expect businesses will pass at least some of the extra cost to consumers. The average household will lose $3,800 of purchasing power per year due to tariff policies announced so far, according to the Yale Budget Lab.
Consumers may pull back on spending, and lower sales would likely dent company profits. Companies may opt to lay off workers, further pressuring consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of the U.S. economy.

Retaliatory trade measures compound the problems, economists said.
China put a 34% tariff on U.S. products after Trump’s announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs last week, and vowed it would “fight to the end.” Canada put 25% tariffs on a range of U.S. goods, while the EU bloc is readying its own 25% retaliatory duties.
(The S&P 500 was up over 2% Tuesday morning on rising hopes for trade deals with China and South Korea.)
Retaliatory tariffs make U.S. goods sold abroad more expensive, hurting export-reliant businesses — perhaps leading to layoffs and lower consumer spending.
“We expect many — if not all — countries outside the U.S. to adopt retaliatory tariffs of their own,” the Wells Fargo Investment Institute wrote in a note Friday.
Wells Fargo expects “significantly lower” growth for the U.S. economy in 2025 due to “unexpectedly aggressive tariff increases.” It lowered its target for gross domestic product to 1% from 2.5% this year.
For now, the economy isn’t yet showing signs of dramatic weakening, said Joe Seydl, senior markets economist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. If tariff policy proves to be long lasting rather than temporary, the shock would likely cause a “mild” U.S. recession, he said.

Tariffs may impact inflation — and interest rates

U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at the headquarters of the Federal Reserve on June 14, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Economists also expect tariffs to raise U.S. inflation this year, at a time when it hasn’t yet fallen back to earth from pandemic-era highs.
“While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday.
The Fed may not cut interest rates as quickly as anticipated as a result.
The dynamic would likely keep borrowing costs higher for businesses, dampening growth prospects for those unable to invest in and expand their operations.

Market hates uncertainty, not tariffs

The current “tariff battle” is “very different” from tariffs in Trump’s first term, Seydl said.
One way: The scale.
The first Trump administration put tariffs on about $380 billion of imports, in 2018 and 2019, according to the Tax Foundation. Now, there are tariffs on more than $2.5 trillion of U.S. imports — or, about seven times more.
Another difference is the White House’s public stance toward tariffs and communication about it, analysts said.

During Trump’s first term, there was level of stock market volatility the administration didn’t find tolerable, Seydl said. Now, there appears to be less concern about stock gyrations — which is perhaps the most important factor in the stock sell-off, he said.
“The capital markets (especially equities) are sending a signal to the Administration that all is not well and the probability of recession, job losses, and a negative wealth effect are all increasing,” wrote Harvey of Wells Fargo.
“The Administration has been somewhat dismissive of these signals, creating a negative feedback loop,” Harvey wrote.
Uncertainty around the framework, goals, potential duration and the White House’s economic tolerance regarding tariffs makes it difficult for investors to assess market risk, he added.

It’s not all tariffs

While tariff policy was a catalyst for the recent sell-off, it wasn’t necessarily the only factor that contributed to the slide, analysts said.
For one, stock valuations were already elevated heading into 2025, Seydl said.
The market was trading at 22 times forward earnings — a measure of stock valuations — which was well above the 16.5 average over 1990 to 2024 and 12.8 average over 1950 to 2024, he said.
“When you have those elevated valuations, the market will be more sensitive to bad news,” Seydl said. More

More young adults are investing in the stock market during this period of extreme volatility, underscoring the need for a basic understanding of personal finance.
Many studies show a strong correlation between financial literacy and financial success.
Now 27 states require public high school students to take a personal finance course before graduating.

There’s a new generation of young investors on the scene just as a financial contagion is spreading.
“It’s very easy to see what’s happening in the market and say, ‘I got to get out,'” said Tim Ranzetta, co-founder and CEO of Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit focused on providing financial education to middle and high school students.

However, most experts agree that taking a beating when stocks go down and then missing out on the gains when stocks go up is one of the worst things new investors can do in periods of extreme volatility.
That is why having at least a basic understanding of personal finance is a crucial lesson for those just starting out.
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Many studies show a direct correlation between financial literacy and financial success.
In fact, there is an economic benefit of roughly $100,000 per student from completing a one-semester class in personal finance, according to a 2024 report by consulting firm Tyton Partners and Next Gen.

“We say it’s $100,000 but as we start to see more and more young people investing, that number is only going to increase,” Ranzetta said.
Much of the value comes from learning how to avoid revolving credit card balances and leveraging better credit scores to secure preferential borrowing rates for key expenses, such as insurance, auto loans and home mortgages, according to Ranzetta.
However, lessons on investing pave the way to long-term wealth creation, said Yanely Espinal, Next Gen’s director of educational outreach. “Teaching students about the financial markets is the greatest asset for building wealth.”

Learning gaps persist

While more students are benefiting from financial literacy courses in high school, there are still significant learning gaps, according to a new report by Junior Achievement and MissionSquare Foundation.
Roughly 40% of teens are worried they won’t have enough money for their future, the report found. At the same time, 80% of teens have never heard of a FICO credit score, developer of one of the scores most widely used by lenders, and nearly half, or 43%, believe that an interest rate of 18% on debt is manageable.
“It’s kind of hard to get ahead in life if that’s how you manage your finances when you get out in the adult world,” said Ed Grocholski, chief marketing officer of Junior Achievement USA.

More states pass financial literacy legislation

Meanwhile, the trend toward in-school personal finance classes is picking up steam.
In March, Kentucky became the 27th state to require that high school students take a personal finance course before graduating, according to the latest data from Next Gen.
In addition, there are another 43 personal finance education bills pending in 17 states, according to Next Gen’s bill tracker.
Without a requirement, students are much less likely to have access to a financial education: Outside the states with a guaranteed course, less than one in ten students receive financial education before graduating, according to Ranzetta.
However, when states pass a personal finance guarantee, school districts — and teachers — must then implement it.
“As much as legislation is critical, it has to be about implementing the course with a high quality curriculum taught by a qualified and confident teacher,” Ranzetta said.
Teaching the 9.2 million public high school students in states that have a personal finance requirement would require a minimum of 23,000 educators, according to an estimate by John Pelletier, director of the financial literacy center at Champlain College.
“Home ec [home economics] teachers are a dying breed,” Pelletier said. “The issue isn’t that we don’t have teachers, what we don’t have is highly trained teachers because it is an orphan curriculum.”
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Amid an ongoing market selloff, some investors may be tempted to cash out in a flight to safety.
Yet research shows they’ll likely regret it.

Hobo_018 | E+ | Getty Images

U.S. stocks saw wild market swings on Monday as the tariff sell-off continued.
For some investors, it may be tempting to head for the exits rather than ride those ups and downs.

Yet investors who sell risk missing out on the upside.
“When there’s a bad sell-off, that bad sell-off is typically followed by a strong bounce back,” said Jack Manley, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
“Given the nature of this sell-off, that likelihood for that bounce back, whenever it occurs, to be pretty concentrated and pretty powerful is that much higher,” Manley said.
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The market’s best days tend to closely follow the worst days, according to JPMorgan Asset Management’s research.

In all, seven of the market’s 10 best days occurred within two weeks of the 10 worst days, according to JPMorgan’s data spanning the past 20 years. For example, in 2020, markets saw their second-worst day of the year on March 12 at the onset of the Covid pandemic. The next day, the markets saw their second-best day of the year.

The cost of missing the market’s best days

Investors who stay the course fare much better over time, according to the JPMorgan research.
Take a $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 index.
If an investor put that sum in on Jan. 3, 2005, and left that money untouched until Dec. 31, 2024, they would have amassed $71,750, for a 10.4% annualized return over that time.
Yet if that same investor had sold their holdings — and therefore missed the market’s best days — they would have accumulated much less.
For the investor who put $10,000 in the S&P 500 in 2005, missing the 10 best market days would bring their portfolio value down from $71,750 had they stayed invested through the end of 2024 to $32,871, for a 6.1% return.

The more that investor moved in and out of the market, the more potential upside they would have lost. If they missed the market’s best 60 days between 2005 and 2025, their return would be -3.7% and their balance would be just $4,712 — a sum well below the $10,000 originally invested.

How investors can adjust their perspective

Yet while investors who stay the course stand to reap the biggest rewards, we’re wired to do the opposite, according to behavioral finance.
Big market drops can put investors in fight or flight mode, and selling out of the market can feel like running toward safety.
It helps for investors to adjust their perspective, according to Manley.
It wasn’t long ago that the S&P 500 was climbing to new all-time highs, reaching a new 5,000 milestone in February 2024, and then climbing to 6,000 for the first time in November 2024.
At some point, the index will again reach new all-time records.

However, investors tend to expect tomorrow to be worse than today, Manley said.
It would help for them to adjust their perspective, he said.  
In 150 years of stock market history, there have been wars, natural disasters, acts of terror, financial crises, a global pandemic and more. Yet the market has always eventually recovered and climbed to new all-time highs.
“If that becomes what you’re looking at, kind of the light at the end of the tunnel, then it becomes a lot easier to stomach the day in, day out volatility,” Manley said.

Advisor: Ask yourself this one key question

When markets hit bottom at the onset of the Covid pandemic, Barry Glassman, a certified financial planner and the founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services, said he asked clients who wanted to cash out one question: “Two years from now, do you think the market is going to be higher than it is today?”
Universally, most said yes. Based on that answer, Glassman advised the clients to do nothing.
Today, the markets have not fallen as far as that Covid market drop. But the question on the two-year outlook — and the resulting response to generally stay put — is still relevant now, said Glassman, who is also a member of the CNBC FA Council.

It’s also important to consider the purpose for the money, he said. If a client in their 50s has money in retirement accounts, those are long-term dollars that over the next 10 to 15 years will likely outperform in stocks compared to other investment choices, he said.
For investors who want to reduce risk, it can make sense, he said. But that doesn’t mean cashing out completely.
“You don’t need to go to 0% stocks,” Glassman said. “That’s just not prudent.” More

The latest stock market downturn could offer the chance for tax planning, according to financial advisors.  
Investors could consider tax-loss harvesting, which can help offset gains with losses.
You could also weigh a Roth individual retirement account conversion to kick-start tax-free growth.

Seif Ibrahim / 500px | 500px | Getty Images

Tax-loss harvesting can be a ‘silver lining’

Stock market volatility often presents the chance to leverage a popular tax strategy, experts say. 
“Tax-loss harvesting is the name of the game right now,” said certified financial planner Sean Lovison, founder of Philadelphia-area Purpose Built Financial Services. 

The move involves selling your losing brokerage account assets to claim a loss. When you file your taxes for 2025, you can use those losses to offset other portfolio gains. 

Once investment losses exceed profits, you can use the excess to reduce regular income by up to $3,000 per year. After that, you can carry additional losses forward into future years to offset capital gains or income.
“It’s looking for a silver lining on a pouring, rainy, cloudy day,” said Lovison, who is also a certified public accountant.
You can also use tax-loss harvesting to rebalance your portfolio, he added.

Weigh Roth conversions

You may consider so-called Roth individual retirement account conversions amid the stock market dip, according to certified financial planner Judy Brown at SC&H Group in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area.
Roth conversions transfer pretax or nondeductible IRA funds to a Roth IRA, which can start tax-free growth. The trade-off is that you’ll owe regular income taxes on the converted balance.  
After transferring funds to a Roth account, it’s possible to capture tax-free growth when the stock market eventually rebounds and the assets recover, she explained.
“But it has to be done fast,” said Brown, who is also a certified public accountant.
Of course, you need to project how the additional income could impact your taxes for the year, experts say.

Roth IRA contributions ‘could be missed’

If you’re eager to build tax-free retirement savings, you can still make Roth IRA contributions for 2024 until the federal tax deadline on April 15. Investing now could also be a chance to “buy the dip” while asset prices are lower, experts say.  
For 2024, you can contribute up to $7,000 if you’re under 50, or $8,000 if you’re 50 or older, assuming you have at least that much “earned income” from a job or self-employment. You also must meet the income requirements.  
“That’s definitely an opportunity that could be missed,” said Lovison. “It’s one more task in the middle of everything that’s going on.”  More

Even the color of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s necktie has significance as the battle over monetary policy heats up.
“It’s not that we are bipartisan, we are nonpolitical … so purple is a good color for that,” Powell said Friday.
Powell has maintained that politics will not play a role in policy decisions, even as pressure mounts from President Donald Trump.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at SABEW on April 4, 2025.
Kelli Grant | CNBC

These days, experts and analysts hang on every signal from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, right down to the color of his necktie.
In response to a question about his chosen apparel on Friday before business journalists in Arlington, Virginia, Powell said, “I definitely wear purple ties all the time.”

Initially the Fed chair said he simply preferred the shade, but then elaborated that “it felt a little awkward to be wearing one that was identified” — referring to the political symbolism of red or blue ties, which are often associated with Republican or Democratic parties, respectively.
“We [at the Federal Reserve] are strictly nonpolitical,” Powell said during the question-and-answer session following his prepared remarks at the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing conference. “I can’t stress that enough.”
“It’s not that we are bipartisan, we are nonpolitical — we don’t do that and so purple is a good color for that, that’s all. Plus I like purple ties.”
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The Federal Reserve has always operated autonomously from the White House. As an independent agency, the central bank governs decisions about monetary policy without interference from the president or any branch of government. Therefore, it is theoretically free from political pressure.

And yet, Fed board members are nominated by the president and must be approved by the Senate. President Donald Trump nominated Powell to head the nation’s central bank in 2018, but he has had a contentious history with the Fed chief ever since.

The battle over monetary policy heats up

On the campaign trail, Trump said the president should “at least have a say” in Federal Reserve decision-making. Last week, Trump called for lower interest rates, even as his sweeping tariff policy battered markets and raised fears of a rebound in inflation.
“This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates. He is always ‘late,’ but he could now change his image, and quickly,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Energy prices are down, Interest Rates are down, Inflation is down, even Eggs are down 69%, and Jobs are UP, all within two months – A BIG WIN for America. CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!”

However, the central bank has also said that new trade policies are a barrier to cutting rates.
The Fed left its benchmark rate unchanged in recent meetings, in part because the new tariffs could lead to a widespread rise in prices that complicate the inflation picture, at least temporarily.
“Looking ahead, higher tariffs will be working their way through our economy and are likely to raise inflation in coming quarters,” Powell said Friday. “We are well positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance.”

The central bank is “trying to juggle the opposing forces of a potentially flatlining economy and rising prices,” according to Bankrate’s senior economic analyst, Mark Hamrick. “The Federal Reserve has a tough job under the best of circumstances and an unenviable one during difficult times,” he said.
“There’s greater pressure on Powell,” said Brett House, economics professor at Columbia Business School. But, “paradoxically, the easier that makes it for the Fed to maintain its independence and the more straightforward it is for them to remain true to their mandate.”
Through the Federal Reserve Act, the legislative and executive branches of the government set the mandate of the Fed to promote maximum employment, keep prices stable and ensure moderate long-term interest rates, House said.
Trump said in December that he does not intend to fire Powell. The Fed chair said Friday that he “fully expects to serve all of my term,” which will conclude in 2026.

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