On May 8, Nick Timiraos, the Federal Reserve's mouthpiece, said that Powell played down any speculation that the Federal Reserve was seeking to cut interest rates to ease the economic weakness caused by Trump's tariffs. Powell mentioned the word wait 22 times during the press conference to emphasize that the Federal Reserve is not in a hurry to act. The comments exposed the monetary policy divide between the US and other economies caused by Trump's trade policies. The simple reason is that other economies have not raised taxes sharply on imports. The problem is weaker demand and employment, but without the impact of rising prices that the Fed may have to deal with later this year. Moreover, since the US economy has just gone through a period of high inflation, the Fed believes it cannot risk pre-emptively cutting interest rates to support a slowdown in employment, so as not to exacerbate price pressures in the short term. As a result, the Fed's stance is different from that of the central banks of Europe, Canada and the UK. Powell suggested that the Fed will only cut interest rates if it sees evidence of a significant slowdown in economic growth, and possibly quickly. (Golden Ten)