Stephen Moore, Trump Fed Nominee, Withdraws

Following the lead of pizza czar Herman Cain, Trump Federal Reserve Board nominee and alimony cheat Stephen Moore has withdrawn himself from consideration. In his bid to exert influence on the independent central bank regulatory agency, President Trump is having difficulties finding stooges with any degree of plausibility.

More:

“Stephen Moore says people don’t want to debate his economic ideas, but those are bad, too,” Matt O’Brien, Washington Post

“Why Stephen Moore’s Fed Bid Failed,” David A. Graham, The Atlantic

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Trump Federal Reserve Picks: And Then There Was One

Stephen Moore, political pundit, Alt-Right fanboy,  gold standard loon, and doctrinaire supply-side dolt, wrote an ill-informed Wall Street Journal op-ed blasting the Federal Reserve. The Journal booted him for being a political hack, but Donald Trump nominated him for the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Moore now says that if he becomes a liability he will withdraw his name from consideration, as did Herman Cain, the President’s other improbable nominee.

Mr. Moore’s recently unearthed sexist comments may prove a liability, but in any case it’s hard to see him as a Fed asset. He is not an actual economist. When he ran the partisan Club for Growth, the outfit incurred $350,000 in FEC penalties. A veteran of the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute, he worked on Ronald Reagan’s Privatization Commission, and helped Dick Armey draft the so-called FairTax proposal, essentially a regressive tax on the poor. More to the point, he worked on the 2016 Trump campaign and co-authored Trumponomics, a 2018 wet dream of low tax rates for the rich.

Stephen Moore knows all about Federal taxation; he owes the IRS more than $75,000 in back taxes. He also shares the Trump Administration’s respect for law and family values; a Maryland court held him in contempt for failing to pay his ex-wife over $300,000 in alimony and child support. Of course, that might not be seen as a liability in today’s Republican Party.

More:

“Spotlight Turns to Stephen Moore After Cain Drops Bid for Fed Board Seat,” Alex Wayne, Margaret Talev, and Christopher Condon, Bloomberg

“Stephen Moore’s Columns Deriding Women Raise New Questions for Trump Fed Pick,” Jim Tankersley, New York Times

“Trump’s Fed pick Moore not planning to drop out of Fed consideration: interview,” Doina Chiacu and Yeganeh Torbati, Reuters

“White House says Stephen Moore still has Trump’s support for Fed seat,” Jeff Mason, Reuters

“Stephen Moore wants people to pay more attention to his economic policies. Challenge accepted.” Catherine Rampell, Washington Post

Related:

“Don’t Let Trump Mess With the Fed,” Steven Rattner, New York Times

“Trump wants to copy the worst thing Turkey does with its economy,” Matt O’Brien, Washington Post

Update:

“GOP support for Stephen Moore falters, leaving Trump’s Fed pick with slim chance of confirmation,” Heather Long, Washington Post

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Federal Reserve Board Pizza Order Canceled

It is with deep-dish regret that we announce that pizza czar Herman Cain, President Trump’s half-baked choice for the Federal Reserve Board, has withdrawn his name from consideration.

More:

“Herman Cain withdraws bid to join Federal Reserve, but Trump still eyes allies for central bank,” Heather Long, Washington Post

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Trump Wants Herman Cain on the Federal Reserve Board

In what may be an attempt to make make a prior nominee look better in comparison, President Trump announced plans to nominate pizza czar Herman Cain of “9-9-9 Tax” and sexcapade fame to a vacant Federal Reserve Board seat.

Like the 6-times-bankrupt Mr. Trump, Mr. Cain was a brilliant businessman, and brought Godfather’s Pizza to profitability by closing 200 restaurants and firing thousands of employees. He entered politics in 1996 as an advisor to Bob Dole’s presidential campaign, then worked as a restaurant lobbyist before his unsuccessful, Islamophobic, Tea-Party attempt to gain the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

Since then, Herman Cain has remained active promoting money-making scams and conspiracy theories. You see why Donald Trump considers him perfect for the Federal Reserve Board. Other Republican leaders are not quite so sure.

More:

“Trump Wants Herman Cain on the Fed Because He’s an Unqualified Hack,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“McConnell declines to publicly endorse Herman Cain for Federal Reserve Board,” Colby Itkowitz and Seung Min Kim, Washington Post

“Herman Cain Admitted He Isn’t Sure He’ll Pass a Background Check,” Tim Murphy, Mother Jones

“Why Does Trump Want to Debase the Fed?” Paul Krugman, New York Times

“Herman Cain is a joke that the Fed can’t afford,” Matt O’Brien, Washington Post

Update:

“Four Senate Republicans signal opposition to Trump’s plan to put Herman Cain on Federal Reserve Board, all but sinking nomination,” Damian Paletta, Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim, Washington Post

Herman Cain Will Not Be Bringing Delicious Godfather’s Pizza To FOMC Meetings,” Jon Shazar, DealBreaker

“White House gives Herman Cain an out on Fed amid GOP opposition,” John T. Bennett, Roll Call

“Herman Cain: I Won’t Withdraw From Consideration for Fed Board,” Daily Beast

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Stephen Moore, Trump’s Feeble Fed Pick

Stephen Moore, political pundit and doctrinaire supply-side dolt, wrote an ill-informed Wall Street Journal op-ed blasting the Federal Reserve. The Journal booted him for being a political hack, but Donald Trump nominated him for the Federal Reserve Board.

Mr. Moore is not an actual economist, but that’s no barrier in today’s Republican Party. He’s been at the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute, worked on Ronald Reagan’s Privatization Commission, and helped Dick Armey draft the so-called FairTax proposal, essentially a regressive tax on the poor. More to the point, he worked on the 2016 Trump campaign and co-authored Trumponomics, a 2018 wet dream of low tax rates for the rich.

Stephen Moore knows all about Federal taxation; he owes the IRS more than $75,000 in back taxes. He also shares the Trump Administration’s respect for law and family values; a Maryland court held him in contempt for failing to pay his ex-wife over $300,000 in alimony and child support.

Who thinks Stephen Moore is a bad choice for the Fed? Real economists. A whole lot of them.

Who (besides Donald Trump) thinks Stephen Moore is a great Fed choice? Former cable TV pundit and Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow, a man with an even worse record on the economy than Stephen Moore.

President Trump may have found a way to make Stephen Moore look a bit better. He plans to nominate pizza czar Herman Cain of “9-9-9 Tax” and sexcapade fame to the other vacant Federal Reserve Board seat.

More:

“Trump Nominates Famous Idiot Stephen Moore to Federal Reserve Board,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“Stephen Moore would change the Federal Reserve for the worse — much worse,” Matt O’Brien, Washington Post

“Economists Forecast Stephen Moore Wouldn’t Be Good For Fed Post,” Scott Horsley, NPR News

“Moore is less,” Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post

“Trump Wants Herman Cain on the Fed Because He’s an Unqualified Hack,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“How Trump would make the Fed a partisan tool,” Roger Lowenstein, Washington Post

Updates:

“Larry Kudlow defends Herman Cain: A lot of sexual allegations ‘don’t necessarily pan out,'” Kyle Balluck, The Hill

“Herman Cain Opens a New #MeToo Minefield for Republicans,” Alan Rappeport and Kenneth P. Vogel, New York Times

“‘Very smart people’: Trump adviser defends Cain and Moore Fed picks,” Martin Pengelly, The Guardian

“The Federal Reserve is already full of Trump’s picks,” Dion Rabouin, Axios

“What’s at Risk if the Fed Becomes as Partisan as the Rest of Washington, Neil Irwin, New York Times

“Trump’s Fed pick Stephen Moore is a self-described ‘radical’ who said he’s not a ‘big believer in democracy,'” Andrew Kaczynski and Paul LeBlanc, CNN

“Does Anyone Really Support Stephen Moore at the Fed?” Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg

“Stephen Moore’s Fed Candidacy Would Be A Sure Thing If He Hadn’t Said Anything Ever,” Jon Shazar, Dealbreaker

“If Republicans can’t stomach Herman Cain for the Fed, how on earth can they tolerate Stephen Moore?” Matt O’Brien, Washington Post

Related:

“Snake-Oil Economics: The Bad Math Behind Trump’s Policies,” N. Gregory Mankiw, Foreign Affairs

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Image (“Trump Fed Capture”) by Mike Licht. Download copies here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com.

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Merle Hazard’s Macro-Policy Barndance

“How Long (Will Interest Rates Stay Low),” a toe-tappin’ country song by Merle Hazard (“moral hazard” meets Merle Haggard, get it?) with Alison Brown on banjo, Tammy Rogers King on fiddle, and Trey Hensley on guitar.

“How long (how long) will interest rates stay low?
That’s the question, the whole world wants to know
How long (how long) will interest rates stay low?
It seems like if they’re going up, they’re going pretty slow.”

More:

“How long will the Fed have to ‘fiddle’ with interest rates?” PBS Newshour

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Regulating Wall Street’s Gamblers

“Over the last decade, the wealthiest Americans got richer by trading in the unregulated financial casinos on Wall Street.” — Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA).

“Once Congress deregulated the swaps market in 1999 it became a $600 trillion high-stakes casino for Wall Street to take big risks and bring our economy to the brink.”– Senator Maria  Cantwell (D-WA).

” … without action, we’ll continue to see what amounts to highly-leveraged, loosely-monitored gambling in our financial system, putting taxpayers and the economy in jeopardy.” – President Barack Obama.

“Wall Street’s a casino, so maybe state gambling laws apply,” Les Blumenthal, McClatchy Newspapers. (See an opposing view here).

Alan Greenspan at FCIC Hearing

Formerly legendary former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on Wednesday.

The crisis? It wasn’t him and nobody saw it coming.

Free Market Fundamentalists take note: Mr. Greenspan has reversed his career-long position and now favors meaningful financial services regulation.

 

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