Federal Reserve policy makers are a bunch of “incredibly nerdy”technocrats who never discuss politics in their meetings, accordingto a senior official, while his colleague said the election ofDonald Trump as U.S. president shouldn't delay an interest-rateincrease next month.

“I am not seeing enough volatility here to change my basicprojection for the economy,” said Federal Reserve Bank of St. LouisPresident James Bullard on Thursday. “I think we are basically ontrack, the same way we were before the election,” he said in St.Louis. “Our view has called for a single rate increase and I thinkDecember would be a reasonable time to implement thatincrease.”

Republican Trump's shock victory on Nov. 8 initially sentstock markets plunging, though equity prices have recovered andbond yields risen in anticipation of the tax cuts andinfrastructure investment he promised voters. Investors currentlysee an 84 percent probability of a quarter percentage point hike attheir Dec. 13-14 meeting, according to pricing in federal fundsfutures.

Trump criticized the Fed during his campaign. Questionsremain, however, over his attitude toward Fed independence andChair Janet Yellen, whom he accused of holding rates low to aidDemocratic President Barack Obama. Fed officials stressed theinstitution is apolitical.

“It can be, to an outsider, very hard to understand all thethings we get into, because we're incredibly nerdy, incrediblygeeky,” said San Francisco Fed chief John Williams as he describedmeetings of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)in Washington.

The key thing is “the 17 policy makers, the hundreds ofeconomists who're involved in this, nowhere is there a discussionof politics,” he said Wednesday in San Francisco. “Even thoughwe're right in the center of Washington, D.C., and all thatentails, we just sit there in those rooms—in that one room,actually—and just discuss the economy and how we can best achievethe goals that Congress gave us.”

Trump has not commented on his views toward the Fed or Yellensince his victory. He cannot fire the chair, whose four-year termexpires in February 2018, but has previously said he would notreappoint her to lead the central bank. Nor has there been anyindication of what, if any, Fed reform he would favor, now that hisparty controls both chambers of Congress.

Bullard said he didn't expect the political upheaval inWashington to have any influence on the monetary policy debate andthat scrutiny by lawmakers was welcome.

“It has been re-examined many, many times and Congress keepscoming out more or less to the same position, which is that this isa pretty good structure for this country because it decentralizessome of the decision-making across the country and creates aninstitution that is at arm's length from the political process,” hesaid.

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