Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman reviews Trump’s nominee for Fed Board chair Kevin Warsh’s qualifications, and, unlike myself, sees them as wanting:
Absent a crisis, my prediction is that the majority of Warsh’s colleagues will largely ignore him, albeit without expressing their contempt openly. Even a coalition among the Trump appointees to the Board of Governors – Warsh, Bowman and Miran – won’t be enough to overturn the responsible monetary policy stewardship of the other governors.
But that’s a low bar, and it may be lower than is generally appreciated. For while I don’t think Warsh will do too much damage to monetary policy, he, along with his fellow Trumper Michelle Bowman, the vice chair for financial supervision, may well eviscerate the Fed’s role as a financial regulator. …
Oh, lovely. Is Warsh another hack who thinks the system is self-regulating?
What lies behind this contempt? Warsh’s most notable role in policy debate came in the years immediately following the global financial crisis, when he was a member of the Federal Reserve Board who argued strenuously against the Fed’s efforts to boost the economy. As I noted at the time, his arguments were confused and incoherent, but he implied (without saying so in clear language) that the Fed’s actions would be inflationary despite the depressed state of the economy.
He was completely wrong about that. Now, everyone makes bad predictions. But when you do, you’re supposed to admit your mistakes and learn from them. Warsh never did that. Instead, he kept inventing new reasons to call for higher interest rates — notably a bizarre claim that low rates were hurting business investment — as long as a Democrat was president.
Oh, a partisan ‘expert’. That’s always a problem.
This is why I generally like experts like Krugman. They know the dirt, they know the details. So Warsh may not be an appropriate nominee. Krugman is resigned to Warsh winning Senate approval, but Trump’s influence is sinking fast. Warsh, despite his superficial qualifications, may still fail.
