From being appointed to the Fed. Here is a non-exhaustive recounting of Moore’s reign of error.
Stephen Moore Lies and Lies and Lies (and Hence Belongs in the Trump NEC)
Stephen Moore: “When It Comes To Electric Power, Coal Is No. 1”
Stephen Moore’s Analysis of Income Taxes and Employment Growth
Homosocial Reproduction and Economic Policy Formulation in the White House
State Employment Trends: Does a Low Tax/Right-to-Work/Low Minimum Wage Regime Correlate to Growth?
Addendum, 4/1: Oh, and Stephen Moore is a scofflaw, failing to pay child support. Currently sealed divorce documents, uploaded by The Guardian, here.
Heh, Menzie’s trying to get me so depressed tonight I’m gonna have to arrange a “Lyft” ride to the nearest psyche ward. So is this the answers to keep my sanity tonight??
https://www.amazon.com/Populist-Temptation-Economic-Grievance-Political/dp/0190866284/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=2KK5MXVBD0MX9&keywords=the+populist+temptation+eichengreen&qid=1553567841&s=gateway&sprefix=the+populist+temptation%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
https://www.amazon.com/Third-Pillar-Markets-Community-Behind/dp/0525558314/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=1QE37YAF4LDO5&keywords=raghuram+rajan+the+third+pillar&qid=1553568040&s=gateway&sprefix=raghuram%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
I need some dark David Letterman humor tonight. But he’s gone now. Thanks millennial p*ssies!!! Eh, who am I kidding, Letterman was finished anyway.
Reassuring. From Bloomberg:
“I’m kind of new to this game, frankly, so I’m going to be on a steep learning curve myself about how the Fed operates, how the Federal
Reserve makes its decisions. It’s hard for me to say even what my role will be there, assuming I get confirmed.”
and yet the buffoon has no problem criticizing how the fed operates. but he admits he does not know how it operates. this stands for conservative intellectual leadership in today’s republican party?
my guess is he does not actually want to be confirmed, as he will then be responsible for his words and actions. he would rather be a cheerleader on the sideline who says “i told you so”, and never actually held accountable for his actions. ever wonder why rush and hannity never ran for elected office? they don’t want the responsibility.
Moore has this sophistocated theory that interest rates are too low when the economy is still below full employment and a Democrat is in the White House but interest rates are too high when the economy is at full employment and Trump is in the White House. How does he justify such an upside view of macroeconomics? Oh yea – he thinks the price of gold is the only appropriate measure of the overall cost of living. Even The Onion could not make this up!
Forget it. As long as Mitch McConnell and the Republicans own the Senate, Trump could nominate Caligula’s horse for the Federal Reserve and they would approve it.
Right answer.
McConnell gets/got(?) his agenda signed into law by the chief idiot. McConnell throws a bone to the chief idiot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji1S0BmPlhY
Do multiple people, all encompassing the same situation/campaign all lie, when “no crimes” have been committed?? I have some vulgarities I could use to describe that, but out of deference to Menzie’s shear exhaustion of editing my comments (not a complaint, “it is what it is”) I’ll just say it’s a laugh riot.
Greg Mankiw thinks he is unsuitable. He is right. only a complete imbecile would nominate this man
At least Mankiw understands macroeconomics and monetary policy. Stephen Moore does not – even Moore said so. Of course Trump hires only the incompetent!
You know your country is in deep sh*t, when relatively sensible people (I said relatively) are rushing to the defense of guys like Mankiw. In the last 24 hours this has gone from making me ill in a mild flu like way to making me ill in the latter stages of lead poisoning type of ill.
I haven’t felt this nauseated pre-trump since dyslexic and learning disabled “W” Bush got on a Navy ship to prove to everyone on planet Earth he had NO IDEA WTF a war is. Then, right before that, we could go to the moment when we decided to wage war on a pack of Saudi nutjob delinquents , with military operations based out of Afghanistan by attacking Iraq. Oh well…… it just doesn’t feel like America anymore if we don’t have a huge clusterf**k every 3 months.
Moses Herzog: Do you mean rushing to defense of ***Moore***?
@ Menzie: Well, I don’t know if this will be viewed as incriminating myself or not, but I did indeed mean Greg Mankiw. Not a fan. Saying Greg Mankiw is better than Stephen Moore, to me, is like saying Neville Chamberlain is better than Nicolas Maduro. OK, but what does that mean exactly??
Sorry if my analogy is a bit ham-fisted, it’s the best I can come up with at the moment.
In defense of Mankiw. As Krugman notes – he is a good economist when he wants to be!
Your analogy is worse than ham-fisted, Mose. Every professional economist from Trotskyists and socialists through mainstreamers to center right estvblishment types like Mankiw to the libertarians at Cato and Austriaans out of George Mason where Moore got his Masters degree are dumping on this appointment and him as a hypocritical lying hack. This is a big deal and not the time to go after Mankiw. We need him to convince some GOP senators to block the guy, which is what is needed. They blocked Nobelist peter Diamond, but the latest out of WaPo is that a lot of them are saying nice things about Moore, how he’ll provide “a different viewpoint,” and similar tripe. They are afraid of Trump.
This worthless slug might actually get approved, and people like Mankiw are the best hope of stopping him.
And what Mankiw has to do with Chamberlain is a major mystery. Are you losing your mind, Mose?
“It’s hard for me to say even what my role will be there”.
Actually – that is the easy part. His role will be to repeat whatever nonsense Trump has tweeted and then bow down to his master’s alleged brilliance!
The good prof Chinn seems to have caught the attention of Bruce Bartlett!!!
https://twitter.com/BruceBartlett/status/1110530116340367363?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1110530116340367363&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmuddyeconomist.com%2F2019%2F03%2F26%2Fcase-shiller-national-house-price-index-increased-4-3-year-over-year-in-january%2F
“For years, respected University of Wisconsin economist Menzie Chinn has done the dirty work of debunking Steve Moore’s lies and errors.”
Bruce Bartlett gets it. Of course Trump is so stupid that he called Moore a “well respected economist”. Our President is an IDIOT!
I still have a hard time forgiving Bruce Bartlett for his Reagan era days—but I will say this, if anyone deserves to be forgiven for breaking bread with the Reaganites, it’s Bruce Bartlett. I’ll give him that much. Plus, bonus points for at least knowing one stellar economist when he sees one.
if republicans could vote against a nobel prize winner peter diamond because he lacked “monetary policy experience”, unless they are hypocrites, they should not even begin to support a fact free, anti-intellectual such as stephen moore who has NO practical economic or monetary policy experience.
Being bright is a detriment in Trump World. Being a village idiot gets you nominated fora Nobel Prize!
@ baffling
WOW, great catch by baffling, remembering the Peter Diamond fiasco, and shame on me for nearly forgetting. That was a severe crime committed on Peter Diamond and a crime against the American public what they put Peter Diamond through. If it was legally doable Diamond should have sued those Republican congressmen for libel. I wish he could.
Brad DeLong joins in on the fun!
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stephen-moore-fed-board-by-j–bradford-delong-2019-03
“Over the course of his presidency, Donald Trump has consistently prized sycophancy above expertise in his selection of advisers and political appointees. But by nominating the right-wing talking head Stephen Moore to the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Trump is taking his war on expertise to a new level.”
Cool opening Brad but what is your real beef with Moore?
In December 2015, the right-wing commentator Stephen Moore, US President Donald Trump’s pick to fill a vacancy on the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors, savagely attacked then-Fed Chair Janet Yellen and her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, for maintaining loose monetary policies in the years following the “Great Recession.” According to Moore, who is not a professional economist, investors had “become hyper-dependent” on the Fed’s “zero-interest-rate policy … just as an addict craves crack cocaine.” This “money creation,” he surmised, had yielded “nada” in terms of “helping juice the economy, creating jobs, or giving the American worker a pay raise.” Worse, the United States had already “tried this before – twice – and both times the story ended badly with a pop of the bubble … in 1999-2000 and … in 2008-09.” The lesson, he concluded, is that, “Micromanaging the economy through the lever of money creation at the grand fiefdom within the Fed doesn’t work.” Or does it? Moore himself is probably not the most reliable judge. On December 26, 2018, he savagely attacked Yellen’s successor, Jerome Powell, for raising interest rates to unwind the very approach that he had condemned three years earlier. “If you cut engine power too far on a jetliner,” he warned, “it will stall and drop out of the sky.” Moore complained that after having “risen by 382 points on hopes that the Fed would listen to Trump and stop cutting power,” the Dow Jones Industrial Average had “plunged by 895 points” on the news of another interest-rate hike. This, he concluded, was evidence that “the Fed’s monetary policy has come unhinged.” Moore called on Powell to “do the honorable thing … and resign.” But, failing that, he hoped that Trump would simply fire the Fed chair. “The law says he can replace the Federal Reserve Chairman for cause,” Moore observed in an interview that same week. “Well, the cause is that he’s wrecking our economy.”
Brad’s recounting the hypocrisy of Mr. Moore even gets better so read the entire discussion!
Stephen Moore—a completely incompetent man, given a job only because he’s a glad-hander and a false flatterer. What could possibly go wrong??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZJYel91kk
His job is to collect a paycheck and do as the boss orders. His appointment will just leave a hole in the FED. He will have no influence. Just a place holder till someone worse is found.
Even our trolls wont touch this turd.
Our trolls are busy misrepresenting the Mueller report. Of course they have not read it but when did a lack of reading comprehension ever slowed them down!
the report has been released??
I have been saying for a long time that the Fed is barely one more mistake away from losing its independence. I agree 100% with what Tim Duy says in his recent article. Fed needs to be smarter. The yield curve is now inverted, albeit barely. They have treated the 2% “target” as a ceiling for over 10 years. They have been over forecasting inflation for years, which never materialized. If they deliver a recession now in the face of absent inflation they will lose their independence. I’d like to be sympathetic, but they brought it on themselves. The threat of Steve Moore might be the only thing that shakes them up. Trump was a burning middle finger to the elite establishment, and Trump is sending a burning middle finger to the FOMC. Who did not see that coming? Moore is an idiot, but if the Fed delivers a recession in the absence of any inflation pressure, people will not say “he’s an idiot,” they will say “he cannot be a bigger idiot than the Fed”.
The best way for the Fed to avoid Moore is to loosen policy a bit and avoid a recession.
@ dwb
Is there a record of you, on this blog, or other blogs, stating your opinion on looser Federal Reserve policy when a Democrat was leading this nation?? You know you can provide links to any prior comment (any of yours or other people’s) even if the thread has been shutdown. I know you’ve commented in this blog before, and I would LOVE to see a prior record of you stating your opinion on looser policy anytime during the eight years President Obama was in office.
Just one single comment under the same id name while Obama was president will suffice. Just ONE
Speaking of Central Bank independence, John Cochrane has written one of his patented long winded rants:
https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2019/03/central-bank-independence.html
As I best as I can tell – the Grumpy Economist is once again whining that the Federal Reserve might actually think about regulating commercial banks.
OK Cochrane may pretend to be monetary economist but please – could we NOT put him on the FED?
dwb, I think you misunderstand Trump’s misunderstanding. He’s a self-styled dealmaker whose background involves BORROWING large sums at the lowest rates possible, debt be damned. And then using that borrowed money to build his and his family’s wealth.
He said as much during the campaign, noting that he loves debt and he proudly assumed the title of the “King of Debt.” He has no background as a lender, nor–as far as I can tell–any long term view of the national debt and its effect on the economy.
He even went so far as to claim he–as President–would have no problem with paying off debt at less than full value. In other words, those foolish enough to lend money should beware what fate might befall them for being foolish enough to buy Treasuries, et. al.
It’s very likely that Trump sees the Fed as an agency that should do everything possible to help those like the Trump family who depend on cheap money for their continued well being.
“He’s a self-styled dealmaker whose background involves BORROWING large sums at the lowest rates possible, debt be damned.”
Given his default history – those lowest possible rates are still in the teens.
Agree 100%. Although I strongly support our 45th President, Moore is not at all qualified to be on the Fed board.
@ Tom
Hey great news!!! That means you can spot 1 unqualified man out of 2 unqualified men presented before you. That’s a 50% batting average. That’ll get you in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and/or the most powerful country in the world managed by a large pack of know-nothing sycophants. Hey Tom, never mind, you can’t win them ALL, am I right??
Tom, the good news is, if Menzie ever produces cartoons on this blog, you will get to play the part of Chester the terrier, while immigrant students trying to get a 4-year University degree, or higher, will be stuck playing the part of Sylvester the cat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgfPHP1w0I
Tom, do you feel more macho…..?? or like your cojones are getting larger paying homage to a F’ing moron President?? I’m glad ‘cuz I’m really not sure all those prostate products on Alex Jones’ show are legit, and I’m really pulling for you Tom.
Folks, in case you were curious what happens when you have a senile old lady as your party’s “Speaker of the House” running the show, we now have our answer. Continually playing defense at the same time her party has a majority. Who plays defense ALL THE TIME while her party is in the majority??? A senile person with no idea whether it’s Monday or Thursday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/us/politics/mueller-investigation-watergate.html
Or maybe the problem is Pelosi is still alone in her office crying that corrupt Joe Crowley lost his race??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGOkVXeraZM
https://theintercept.com/2018/05/22/joseph-crowley-alexandra-ocasio-cortez-new-york-primary/
I dearly hope Nancy Pelosi has gotten over her deep melancholy over her dear friend, Corrupt Crowley, getting booted out on his corrupt fanny. Oh wait!!!…. Wait!!!! Wait!!!! Wait!!!! Wait!!!!! I forgot Barkley Junior says Pelosi is a “strong” woman, Yes Nancy Pelosi is a “strong!!!!” woman. Pelosi is “fierce!!!” Very “Fierce!!!” and “strong!!”, Don’t forget Nancy is very “strong!!!” people. Please don’t forget Nancy Pelosi is “strong!!!!” Please don’t forget. very “strong”…… Please don’t forget now.
This is just sick. Mose, Pelosi is the best speaker in a long time. Trump has fallen into her trap with his dump Obamacare bit. There he was prancing about with his “Mueller victory,” but he will not get the political win Clinton got when GOP impeached him, and she leads unified Dems on expanding health care coverage.
I am not sure which is worse, your ageist sexism or your screaming stupidity. You almost make goofs like PT and CoRev look sensible by comparison.
Baring a personal scandal he will likely be approved. Being incompetent isn’t a disqualification for what passes for public service.
On a not too off topic note: “War and Economy in the Third Reich,” by R. J. Overy, is a very interesting read. (At least for those of us who enjoy our history broader than just the political).
Satan’s bride strikes again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VwhYFF5ChU
https://twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/1110743768230232065
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y8PVXR2P44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tA2Kzbf6dg
“Barring a personal scandal he will likely be approved.”
Well, it turns out that Moore was cheating on his income taxes to the tune of more than $75,000. The government went so far as to issue a lien against him, which is not a run of the mill tax case. This is much more serious. The IRS only issues a lien in the most egregious cases where a taxpayer refuses to respond or pay when notified of a tax underpayment.
It turns out Moore was taking a tax deduction for child support payments. What a great scam. I’m sure every parent would be delighted to be able to deduct the cost of raising their children, but only someone as Moore would be brazen enough to attempt to get away with it.
Under Menzie’s new Moore post, I placed another comment citing the Bloomberg story. That Moore is relying on Anne Curry – the new wife – to speak for him proves what a gutless weasel Stephen Moore is.
“It turns out Moore was taking a tax deduction for child support payments.”
Of course this has been illegal ever since the 1986 tax reform. What kind of moron would even think about something that is so plainly illegal. You say brazen – I say moronical. Stephen Moore after all is a really stupid person.
@joseph – does he depreciate his kids as well?
Re: Moore’s “expertise”: a few years ago, I heard this question from a loud-mouthed fan–a very vocal critic of the coach– a few seats down at a college football game: “Why are our linemen always out in front of our running backs?” My young companion, a high school lineman, laughed with an “Oh, my God,” slap on his own head while more than one fan sitting nearby responded with “It’s called blocking , genius”. And, of course, there was the more succinct ” are you a $%#$^%$ moron?”
None of which made a dent in either his opinions or his mouth, which continued all game long. He was very unhappy with a three touchdown win.