Defending their own, from the Financial Times in London: Trump’s mudslinging puts the Fed in danger.

That the Fed is a politicised institution — more so than most other central banks — is not a contentious observation. Compared with international counterparts, there is a high degree of declared political affiliation among Fed governors and a tendency for presidents to appoint one of their own as Fed chair. Nor is it unusual for Fed officials also to have served in the executive branch: Alan Greenspan, Fed chairman from 1987-2006, had been chairman of the White House economic advisers council in Gerald Ford’s administration. Ben Bernanke, his successor, did the same job under George W Bush.

But that does not translate into setting monetary policy in a politically partisan way.

Oh no, of course not. But since the Fed would act in exactly the same way if it were a declared agent of the Democratic Party, how are we to tell the difference? Rates should have gone up a long time ago. That they have stayed put makes anyone watching what they do very suspicious.