{"id":24478,"date":"2019-03-29T14:17:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T19:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=24478"},"modified":"2019-03-29T14:17:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T19:17:25","slug":"faith-based-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2019\/03\/29\/faith-based-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith-Based Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Benen tees off<\/a> on President Trump’s nomination of Stephen Moore to the Fed Reserve Board:<\/p>\n

But even putting that aside, Stephen Moore isn\u2019t just another unfortunate selection for the amateur president. He is a\u00a0uniquely<\/a>\u00a0ridiculous<\/a>\u00a0choice \u2013 quite possibly the least defensible of the Trump presidency to date.<\/p>\n

To say it\u2019s difficult to know where to start with Moore\u2019s c.v. is to be quite literal. It matters, obviously, that he\u2019s not an economist and knows very little about what the Federal Reserve does. But it also matters that Moore has been\u00a0wrong about practically everything<\/a>\u00a0for many years. It matters that he appears to be\u00a0a Trump sycophant<\/a>. It matters that Moore has had a hand in some\u00a0spectacular economic failures<\/a>. It matters that Moore\u2019s economic opinions tend to\u00a0echo Republican talking points<\/a>while \u201cflying in the face of economic theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

It matters that Moore has a reputation for\u00a0misstating basic factual details<\/a>. It matters that his economic views\u00a0tend to vary based on the party of the president at the time<\/a>. It matters that the White House has\u00a0made the finance industry nervous<\/a>\u00a0with this nomination. It matters that actual economists have been\u00a0apoplectic<\/a>\u00a0about Trump\u2019s selection of Moore, (One scholar\u00a0argued<\/a>, \u201cThis is truly an appalling appointment. An ideologue, charlatan, and hack. Frankly so bad the putatively serious economists in Trump administration should resign as matter of honor.\u201d)<\/p>\n

It matters that Moore has embarrassed himself on television\u00a0over<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0over<\/a>\u00a0again. It matters that Moore, at the height of the Great Recession, turned to \u201cAtlas Shrugged\u201d\u00a0as an economic guide<\/a>. It matters that Moore\u2019s\u00a0own finances<\/a>\u00a0are a mess \u2013 why the White House refuses to vet its nominees in advance is a mystery \u2013 owing $75,000 in unpaid federal taxes, interest, and penalties.<\/p>\n

Slate<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0recent summary<\/a>\u00a0struck me as notable: \u201cStephen Moore is a living embodiment of the sucking intellectual void at the core of conservative economics, an inept pundit who has spent his career evangelizing the supply-side dogma that tax cuts pay for themselves while shilling for Republican officeholders, all from well-paid perches at think tanks and in the media.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think we may see Mr. Moore confirmed, despite his apparently glaring deficiencies, because he appears to be an acolyte to the Holy Economic Faith of the Republican Party: tax cuts, Laffer Curves, and trickle-down economics. This is important because such unreasoning beliefs are difficult to rebuff. Reason has little effect on them. They have theoretical underpinnings, much like theology, which gives them an air of respectability for all concerned, including the leaders. Witness the smoking disaster<\/a> of Brownback’s Kansas. He should have known better.<\/p>\n

No one’s really peeking behind their curtain.<\/p>\n

So I fear we’re really going to have to go through another recession in order for the Republicans to even consider revising their faith, not belief<\/em>, but faith<\/em> in these Holy Economic Tenets.<\/p>\n

And, in the meantime, I fear Mr. Moore will get his seat on the Fed Reserve Board. His lack of economics training may be the only thing that’ll hold him back, and I don’t know that’ll stick in the Republicans’ craw enough to stop his ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Benen tees off on President Trump’s nomination of Stephen Moore to the Fed Reserve Board: But even putting that aside, Stephen Moore isn\u2019t just another unfortunate selection for the amateur president. He is a\u00a0uniquely\u00a0ridiculous\u00a0choice \u2013 quite possibly the least defensible of the Trump presidency to date. To say it\u2019s \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24480,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478\/revisions\/24480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}