“It's no secret”, economist
Paul Krugman observes, “That Donald Trump has appointed a
lot of partisan, unqualified hacks to key policy positions.” (1)
In this, Krugman is
joining the ranks of scores of reporters and millions of Americans in
their ridicule of a man who once promised us that “Only
the Best People” would be
brought into our government.
Indeed, as Krugman
notes, fellow Times contributor
Gail Collins now annually asks readers to name the worst of the
worst. She has introduced the equivalent of the late Senator William
Proxmire's “Golden Fleece” award
only this time the dubious honor is given to the most venal, corrupt,
malignant or downright breathtakingly incompetent member of this
maladministration. This year it went to Commerce Secretary Wilbur
Ross who scores high on at least two of the aforementioned criteria.
But until recently,
notes Krugman, “one agency had seemed immune to the
continuing hack invasion: the Federal Reserve, the single institution
most crucial to economic policymaking. Trump's Fed nominees, have,
by and large, been sensible, respected economists. But all that
changed last week, when Trump said he planned to nominate Stephen
Moore for the Fed's Board of Governors.
“Moore is manifestly, flamboyantly, unqualified for
the position. But there's a story here that goes deeper than Moore,
or even Trump; it's about the whole G.O.P.'s preference for hucksters
over experts, even partisan experts.
“About Moore: It goes almost without saying that he
has been wrong about everything. I don't mean the occasional bad
call, which all of us make. I mean a track record that includes
predicting that George W. Bush's policies would produce a magnificent
boom, Barack Obama's policies would lead to runaway inflation, tax
cuts in Kansas would produce a 'near immediate' boost to the state's
economy, and much more. And, of course, never an acknowledgment of
error or reflection on why he got it wrong.
“Beyond that, Moore has a problem with facts.
After printing a Moore op-ed in which all the key numbers were wrong,
one editor vowed never to publish the man's work again. And a
blizzard of factual errors is standard practice in his writing and
speaking. It's actually hard to find cases where Moore got a fact
right.(2)
So why Moore and why
now? Krugman suggest that Disgustus' tax cut has proven itself a
miserable failure and therefore someone or something must take the
fall. In this case the Federal Reserve which tRUMP is now accusing
of aborting his 'great recovery' by modestly raising interest rates.
And so, the Federal Reserve now joins a long chorus of institution
with whom our errant Caesar wages war. To that end he has appointed
not only the intellectual vacuous Moore but the Pizza King Herman
Cain. Cain, who at least served on a regional bank board has since
demurred, claiming he would have to take a pay cut to serve. But the
prospect of the kleig lights shining on Herman Cain is more likely
the reason. Beyond mere sexual peccadillo, Cain would have to
defend, while serving a chief of a restaurant lobbyist his adoption
in the 1990's of Clinton's raise in the minimum wage in return for
his industry not being effected. As a result he would have to
explain to the nation his role in keeping restaurant workers minimum
wage pegged at $2.30 an hour. Would he then apply the same
rationales for Fed policy as it pertains to the money supply as it
relates to labor? That is would he, like Greenspan before him, see
any real rise in wages as a rationale for turning the screws down on
the economy by raising the cost of money therefore increasing
unemployment? More than likely, and such an explanation would
quickly lay bare the fraud that is tRUMP when it comes to those who
actually sweat at work.
In any case, one of the
idiots has removed himself, for all the wrong reasons, from
consideration. But the other—Moore--still stands. This is the same
Stephen Moore who pioneered the “privatization” movement during
the Reagan years.
Our Caesar Disgustus,
the Great Vandal, knows
nothing if not how to vandalize. By earning his wrath the Fed is now
in the cross-hairs, and what better instrument than a man who apes so
much of Disgustus himself. A man who has no relationship with fact
or truth; a man who steadfastly refuses to recognize failure, much
less take responsibility for it; a man of unwarranted confidence
posturing as an 'expert' upon the stage.
We shall see, when
confronted with imposing ignorance on the handling of high finance,
how the moneyed interests respond. Will Wall Street, seeing a dunce
at the helm, finally recognize that he now threatens the value of
money itself, that he is a clear and present danger to everything the
stock-jobbing, blood-sucking parasites hold dear?
The worm turns and the nation groans.
“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”.
Impeach and Imprison.
___________
- Krugman, Paul. “Trump's Kakistocracy Is Also a Hackistocracy” The New York Times. Tuesday, March 26, 2019. Page A22
- Ibid.
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