Greg Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard who served as an adviser to both George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, writes that senators should “do their job” and ensure Stephen Moore is not confirmed as a Fed governor.
Said Mankiw: “Steve is a perfectly amiable guy, but he does not have the intellectual gravitas for this important job. It is time for Senators to do their job. Mr. Moore should not be confirmed.”
President Trump announced that he planned to nominate 2016 campaign adviser Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve board, the AP reports.
Moore wrote a book called Trumponomics and is a vocal critic of Fed chairman Jerome Powell.
Jonathan Chait: “Moore’s primary area of pseudo-expertise — he is not an economist — is fiscal policy. He is a dedicated advocate of supply-side economics, relentlessly promoting his fanatical hatred of redistribution and belief that lower taxes for the rich can and will unleash wondrous prosperity. Like nearly all supply-siders, he has clung to this dogma in the face of repeated, spectacular failures.”
“President Trump is considering picking long-time supporter Stephen Moore to be a governor at the Federal Reserve Board, Reuters reports.
“Moore, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, helped write Trump’s signature tax plan. The position would give him a vote at the policy-setting table of an institution whose interest-rate hikes last year were a frequent target of Trump’s ire.”
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jay Powell was interviewed by Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes:
PELLEY: “Can the president fire you?”
POWELL: “Well, the law is clear that I have a four-year term. And I fully intend to serve it.”
PELLEY: “So no, in your view?”
POWELL: “No.”
Bloomberg: “Cain, 73, was in the White House on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter. Two seats on the Fed board are vacant, but nominating Cain raises the prospect of a Senate confirmation hearing focused on the sexual harassment and infidelity accusations that ended his presidential campaign.”
“Cain had a long corporate career and is also familiar with the Federal Reserve system. From 1992 to 1996, he served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, as well as deputy chairman and then chairman.”
Politico: “Top Wall Street executives would mostly love to be rid of President Donald Trump. But they are getting panicked about the prospect of an ultra-liberal Democratic nominee bent on raising their taxes and slapping new regulations on their firms. The result is a kind of nervous paralysis of executives pining for a centrist nominee like Michael Bloomberg while realizing such an outcome is highly unlikely from a party veering sharply to the left.”
“Early support from deep-pocketed financial executives could give Democrats seeking to break out of the pack an important fundraising boost. But any association with bankers also opens presidential hopefuls to sharp attacks from an ascendant left.”
“President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is overseeing the internal search for a nominee to lead the World Bank — but is not herself a candidate for the job, according to the White House,” Politico reports.
“The World Bank’s current president, Jim Yong Kim, announced last week that he will step down next month, touching off speculation about his replacement.”
The Financial Times reported that Ivanka Trump’s name was “floating around Washington” as one possibility.
Politico: “The assignment, which lawmakers say they expect her to receive, would pit the 29-year-old New Yorker not only against banks that make up a major local industry but also potentially against business-friendly Democrats who have backed financial deregulation.”
“Some moderate Democrats have privately raised concerns that they’ll be targeted by the former bartender-turned-progressive icon, whose willingness to challenge her party’s establishment propelled her to Congress and the national spotlight.”
“Americans’ predictions for the stock market this year are almost completely determined by party, with Democrats as pessimistic about the coming year’s stock performance as Republicans are optimistic,” according to an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll.
“The two parties are almost exact mirror images of each other, with independents caught in the middle. It’s a good reminder of how much people’s political views can shape their expectations for their personal finances, not just politics.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that he would not resign if President Trump were to ask him to, Politico reports.
“While Trump has repeatedly criticized Powell on Twitter for the central bank’s campaign of steady rate hikes, the Fed chairman said there has been no direct contact between him and the president in recent months. Still, he said he would be open to meeting with Trump.”
“Stocks on Wednesday climbed back from their epic Christmas Eve plunge as all three indexes posted big gains,” the Washington Post reports.
“The Dow Jones industrial average roared more than 1,050 points in late afternoon as stocks snapped a four-day losing streak that had placed the 10-year bull market on the edge of death on Monday.”
Wall Street Journal: “With a view toward giving Mr. Trump a clearer idea of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s work and focus, administration aides have discussed setting up a private meeting between the two men early in the new year. The Treasury Department, headed by Steven Mnuchin, has looked into whether there was precedent for such a meeting, an administration official said. Presidents have met with Fed leaders in the past.”
President Trump’s “frustration with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is ratcheting up further after markets suffered their worst Christmas Eve drop ever despite Mnuchin’s attempts to calm Wall Street,” CNN reports.
The source said that Mnuchin “could be in ‘serious jeopardy’ with Trump, who regularly rages at Cabinet members he feels have made mistakes, before he cools off.”
“Trump nevertheless vouched for Mnuchin publicly, shifting blame for the market volatility to the Federal Reserve instead.”
“With stocks extending their slide Monday, President Trump took another swipe at the Federal Reserve, writing on Twitter that the ‘only problem our economy has is the Fed’ as he continued to blame the central bank for recent volatility in the financial markets,” the New York Times reports.
“But Mr. Trump’s comments only exacerbated the sell-off on Wall Street, and stocks were on track for their worst year since 2008 and the largest December decline since the 1930s. The S&P 500 closed down 2.7 percent after a shortened trading session because of the Christmas holiday.”
“President Trump has unabashedly hitched his political fortunes to a rising stock market. Now, with stock prices in retreat, he has become increasingly fixated on the idea that one man is to blame for the recent rout: Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve,” the New York Times reports.
“After the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday, the fifth consecutive quarterly increase, Mr. Trump fretted to aides that Mr. Powell would ‘turn me into Hoover,’ a reference to the man who was president in the early years of the Great Depression. Mr. Trump has said choosing Mr. Powell for the Fed job last year was the worst mistake of his presidency and he has asked aides whether he has the power to fire him.”
“But the volatile stock market, which just posted its worst week since 2008, is falling in part because of Mr. Trump’s own policies, including an escalating trade war with China, a shutdown of the federal government and the fading effects of the $1.5 trillion tax cut Mr. Trump ushered in at the end of 2017.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “startled financial analysts, bankers and economists on Sunday by issuing an unusual statement declaring that the nation’s six largest banks had ample credit to extend to American businesses and households,” the Washington Post reports.
“Several analysts said Sunday night that his outreach to the banks and subsequent statement were likely to backfire and drive even more concern.”
Politico: “Treasury did not say what motivated the statement.”
“In a precautionary move, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spent Sunday on the phone speaking with the chief executives of six of the country’s largest banks to avoid yet another market whiplash when Wall Street opens Monday,” CNN reports.
“The secretary… tried to get ahead of further market jitters following reports that President Trump was consulting advisers about whether he had the legal authority to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.”
Axios: “It’s unclear Trump would have the legal authority to take such action. Such a move would also undermine international faith in the Fed.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied an earlier report that President Trump has spoken privately about firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell following the Fed’s decision to hike interest rates for the fourth time during his tenure, Axios reports.
As the earlier report notes, firing Powell “could have potentially devastating ripple effects across financial markets.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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