{"id":24585,"date":"2019-04-10T16:15:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T21:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=24585"},"modified":"2019-04-10T16:17:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T21:17:06","slug":"24585","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2019\/04\/10\/24585\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Both Hands, Not The Shiny Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politico\u00a0<\/b><\/i>has a\u00a0remark\u00a0<\/a>on why non-economist Herman Cain may have been put in the pipeline to be nominated to the Fed Reserve Board by President Trump:<\/p>\n

Some GOP senators said that Cain\u2019s difficult path might have eased Stephen Moore\u2019s confirmation to the Fed, despite Moore\u2019s own problems with unpaid taxes and his partisan reputation. After all, Republicans might be hard-pressed to revolt against both of Trump\u2019s nominees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fed Reserve Board nominee and non-economist Stephen Moore has also been a startling announced to-be-nominee. Steve Benen provides a summary<\/a>:<\/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>\u00a0while \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><\/blockquote>\n

And Jon Chait at\u00a0New York Magazine<\/b><\/i><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Faced with the prospect of attempting to confirm two absurdly unqualified cranks for esteemed Fed positions, the conservative movement has undertaken a triage operation, focusing its defenses on Moore and leaving Cain to twist in the wind. The decision to save Moore at Cain\u2019s expense makes some sense: Of the two, Cain\u2019s kookery was on more colorful display through his slapstick 2012 presidential campaign. Cain\u2019s treatment of women (numerous sexual-harassment lawsuits) is harder to defend than\u00a0Moore\u2019s<\/a>(open adultery followed by failure to pay child support.)<\/p>\n

Still, the defenses of Moore have a distinctly weary undertone.\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0endorses its former staffer, gamely notes that \u201cas an individual Fed governor, Mr. Moore wouldn\u2019t likely wield much influence.\u201d Yes, \u201cthe alleged rap\u201d on him is that \u201che has on occasion been wrong about monetary policy,\u201d\u00a0the editorial allows with considerable understatement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Damned with exceedingly faint praise by WSJ<\/strong><\/em>, I’d say. Someone who subscribes to the WSJ\u00a0<\/b><\/i>should call them up and tell them to grow a pair, because this is a President who needs to be reprimanded, and hard enough to break fingers.<\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, I hope that the Congressional press corps gets together and decides to ask every Senator who says they like Moore in comparison to Cain whether or not they enjoy being gamed\u00a0<\/b>by the most incompetent President in the history of the Nation. Which is to say, made to look like fools.<\/p>\n

And, finally, what is going on here? Trump’s other nominee to the board is now the chairman, and he’s worked out quite well in my opinion. Has Trump received orders to try to wreck the economy from his handlers? Or does he think he can goose the economy into such a high gear that enough voters who otherwise despise him will vote for him after all? Moore apparently thinks so. But he’s only a single vote.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it’s the continuing drain of ‘adults’ from this Administration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politico\u00a0has a\u00a0remark\u00a0on why non-economist Herman Cain may have been put in the pipeline to be nominated to the Fed Reserve Board by President Trump: Some GOP senators said that Cain\u2019s difficult path might have eased Stephen Moore\u2019s confirmation to the Fed, despite Moore\u2019s own problems with unpaid taxes and his \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-24585","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\/24585","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=24585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24588,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585\/revisions\/24588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}