- Elon Musk has blasted the Fed's interest-rate hikes more than 20 times in the past seven months.
- The Tesla CEO has argued they're unnecessary, dangerous, and harmful to companies.
Elon Musk has called out the Federal Reserve more than 20 times in the past seven months, as he continues to rail against the US central bank for hiking interest rates too aggressively.
In a bid to curb historic inflation, the Fed has raised its benchmark rate from virtually zero to about 5% within the past 14 months. Musk — the CEO of Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX — has complained the hikes aren't needed, they're boosting the risk of a recession, and they're hurting Tesla by making its vehicles pricier and pulling down its stock price.
The tech billionaire has also warned that higher rates are heaping pressure on banks, and might contribute to a credit crunch. He's blasted the central bank in tweets, on Tesla's earnings calls, and during media interviews.
Here's a roundup of Musk's criticisms of the Fed during the past 7 months:
1. "A major Fed rate hike risks deflation." (September)
2. "The Fed is raising interest rates more than they should, but I think they'll eventually realize that and bring it back down again. The Fed is not listening because they're looking at the rearview mirror instead of looking out the front windshield." (October)
3. "Fed needs to cut interest rates immediately. They are massively amplifying the probability of a severe recession." (November)
4. "If the Fed raises rates again next week, the recession will be greatly amplified." (December)
5. "Tesla is executing better than ever! We don't control the Federal Reserve. That is the real problem here." (December)
6. "I keep saying that Fed rate is insane, because data I'm seeing says we're already in deflation." (December)
7. "At risk of stating obvious, beware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially when Fed keeps raising rates." (December)
8. "At the risk of being repetitive, these Fed rate increases might go down in history as most damaging ever." (December)
9. "It's blowing my mind that the Fed has raised rates so high. The economy right now is like a car driving around on a cliffside road, and the Fed is driving it by looking at a video taken of the rearview mirror that's three months old. This is not a good way to drive a car on a windy cliff road. I think we're in for a hard landing." (December)
10. "I wonder what would have happened in 2009 if the Fed had raised rates instead of lowering them." (January)
11. "The higher the rates, the harder the fall." (January)
12. "Fed rate increases make cars more expensive for consumers, increasing the difficulty level for automotive companies." (January)
13. "Every time Fed raises rates, they're increasing monthly payments for anything bought with debt." (January)
14. "Maximum skill with monetary policy is extremely important in this role! A bad Fed decision affects the lives of everyone." (February)
15. "The Fed is operating with way too much latency in their data. Rates need to drop immediately." (March)
16. "'Once again, we are confidently wrong' – The Fed." (March)
17. "Fed needs to drop the rate by at least 50bps on Wednesday." (March)
18. "A major driver of depositor flight is people moving money from low interest savings accounts to high interest money market (Treasury Bill) accounts. This foolish rate hike will worsen depositor flight." (March)
19. "You're welcome, now if only you were the actual head of the Fed!" (April)
20. "Every time the Fed raises the interest rates, that's equivalent to increasing the price of a car. For most people, their ability to buy a car is a function of can they make the monthly payment or not. If interest rates are really high, like they are right now, in some cases, people can't get a loan at all." (April)
21. "The data with which the Federal Reserve is making decisions has too much latency." (April)