Steve Moore’s peculiar logic
This caught my eye:
Moore said on “This Week” that one of the most compelling reasons he should be on the Fed Board is because he was “one of the first economists” to criticize the Fed for raising interest rates in December.
“I got very angry about it and I said this was economic malpractice. It was a terrible decision by the Fed. The stock market fell by 2,500 points in the subsequent weeks of that,” he said. “And then, of course, the Fed had to reverse course, put its tail between its legs and admit that people like Donald Trump and I were right and that they were wrong.
Where to begin. The Fed has not “admitted” that Trump was right. Nor has it reversed the interest rate increase that Steve Moore thought was going to have a disastrous effect on the economy. So how has the economy done since the Fed foolishly raised rates in December? Moore continues:
“And incidentally, George, ever since then the economy has been on this surge.”
So the Fed decision to raise rates has been followed by a “surge”. And this proves that the Fed was mistaken to raise rates?
Presumably Moore has something else in mind, perhaps the Fed’s decision to back off from its plan for future rate increases. But if the economy really is surging, I’m having trouble understanding how this proves the December rate increase was a mistake.
If Moore were an average American I would not pick on his confusion over the distinction between interest rate increases and forward guidance. But he’s not an average American, he’s a candidate for the Fed. If he makes it to the Board I suspect that he’s going to be in way over his head, and hence relatively ineffective.
PS. Saturday’s post quoting Jonah Goldberg was highly critical of conservatives. In fairness, there are still a few sensible people out there:
President Trump turned on Fox News personality Judge Andrew Napolitano after the legal analyst issued a sharp rebuke of the president’s actions outlined in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report as “immoral, criminal, defenseless and condemnable.”
J.W. Verret, a George Mason University law professor who served on President Donald Trump’s transition team, is calling on Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“This is serious stuff,” Verret told CNN’s Don Lemon in an interview Tuesday. “The Mueller report I think is something you can’t look away from. I mean you have to admit it: The emperor has no clothes.”
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney issued a sharp rebuke of President Donald Trump on Friday following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, saying he was “sickened” by details revealed in the document.
“I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President. I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia,” the Utah Republican said in a statement.
But the report “completely exonerated” Trump.
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29. April 2019 at 09:58
Everybody loves Romney now and says Obama was wrong about Russia in 2012.
Political peace on the issue of “we’re all war-mongers now, and need to push batshit policies against Russia” is not political peace worth having, but war-mongering is where establishment Dems and GOP (including all the neocons) see eye to eye, so some people will take their kumbaya where they can get it.
29. April 2019 at 13:55
Brian, Nobody is calling for war against Russia, but we have traitors in our midst who say Putin can be trusted over the US intelligence services. One of them is living in the White House.
29. April 2019 at 14:53
[…] at the American Enterprise Institute, Hoover Institution, Cato Institute, and Mercatus Center — have criticized Moore for his wrong, intellectually dishonest and politically malleable […]
30. April 2019 at 05:12
McCarthy was a bad man, but the thing about McCarthyism is that there were actual Communists actively working for the Soviet Union inside the US government at a time when the Soviet Union was much more commensurate with Western power.
Russia today is a puny power (GDP ~8% of US), yet we have a farcical rerun of the Russian scare made of whole cloth and being pumped out relentlessly by 20% or so of US media. It’s all originating from liberals (not leftists like Chomsky btw) who can’t come to grips with their crummy 2016 candidate, except now the right-wing war-mongers are jumping on board. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
30. April 2019 at 10:20
Brian, You said:
“Russia today is a puny power (GDP ~8% of US),”
I agree that the US spends far too much on the military. As you know, I am not a “hawk”. But NATO is a cheap and useful way to keep the peace in Europe. I wish Trump were more supportive of NATO.