ORANGE MAN, BAD MACRO: Trump’s War on Powell & Economic-Policy Reality
Bessent, Lutnick, Hassett, Yared, & company should all have resigned last night, if they want anybody ever to regard any of them as a man. Just saying…
The most important thing for you to focus on right now is: ORANGE MAN VERY BAD.
The Trump-Noem ICE is populated by murderous fascist thugs, people whose brutality arises because, as Noah Smith puts it, of “unprofessionalism and low recruitment standards” plus that they have been brainwashed. As he goes on to say:
Noah Smith: <twitter.com/Noahpinio…>: ‘ICE is recruiting people using the Great Replacement ideology, so it’s getting agents who think they’re in an EXISTENTIAL RACE WAR…
And they are starting to wage that war against one-third of America: the foreign-born, with or without valid H1-B and other visas and green cards; citizen children of the foreign-born; other U.S. citizens who look funny to them; and liberals.
But, shift gears. Also we have:
Right now the ORANGE MAN—President Donald Trump—is trying to put Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell in jail. Who is Jay Powell? He is the man who Donald Trump chose eight years ago as the best human in the entire world to do the job—the very best out of all eight billion of us. Remember: Trump could have nominated anyone, and the Republican senators would have confirmed his nomination. Trump could have nominated his favorite horse Incitatus. In fact, he could not have done that. But the blockage is not because the Republican senators would have nixed such a nomination nomination. It is because Trump is such a total misanthropic narcissistic alexithymic that he is incapable of having a favorite horse.
He chose Powell. Now he has regrets. And he wants to put Powell in jail:
Jay Powell: Statement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckGHaBLSn4>: ‘Good evening. On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony, concerned, in part, a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings.
“I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one, certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve is above the law. But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure. This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress’s oversight role. The Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts.
The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates, based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President. This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions, or whether instead, monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”
I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment. Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats. I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.”
Thank you.
Donald Trump says right now that he does not like Jay Powell’s Republican-grandee relatively hard-money orientation toward Fed policy?
This is the bed he made.
He had two very well-qualified Fed officials who did not share that orientation to hand when he chose Powell. He had two who were better equipped, in my mind at least, to do the job: then-Fed Chair Janet Yellen and then-Fed Governor Lael Brainard. He rejected both of them. For Powell.
And now he is trying to put Powell in jail.
Why?
For doing his job as he sees it. And, under any cool and rational assessment, doing a very good job as well.
The monetary policy of Powell and his committee has done a very large number of very good things, successfully: