A candidate has been nominated for one of two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors — and the mainstream media isn’t happy.
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he has nominated Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation visiting fellow and ardent Trump supporter, for a seat on the Fed’s board. The mainstream media has decried the move as nothing more than the appointment of a “loyalist” to do Trump’s bidding for him, but Moore has promised to be independent and nonpartisan.
Trump picks seasoned economist for Fed
The president announced his selection to a group of reporters on his way to Florida on Friday. He followed this up with a tweet praising Moore as a “very respected [e]conomist.”
It is my pleasure to announce that @StephenMoore, a very respected Economist, will be nominated to serve on the Fed Board. I have known Steve for a long time – and have no doubt he will be an outstanding choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2019
Moore, who holds a masters’ degree in economics, has made a name for himself serving as a senior economist on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, and an economic analyst for CNN.
In addition to being a longtime acquaintance of Trump, Moore also served as a campaign advisor for the now-president in 2016, helping to write his economic agenda. But Trump’s choice has much more to do with Moore’s economic beliefs than his friendship.
Moore, like Trump, has been a trenchant critic of the Federal Reserve as it is being currently run by chairman Jerome Powell. Moore recently co-authored a piece for the Wall Street Journal, which likely played a role in Trump’s decision-making process, blaming Powell for the slowing of the economy.
And that was just one of many occasions on which Moore has gone after Powell. “I believe the people on the Federal Reserve Board should be thrown out for economic malpractice,” Moore said on a radio show in December.
“I always thought [Powell] was a bad choice,” Moore added. “He’s been a Fed guy for many years. Donald Trump wanted to drain the swamp. The Fed is the swamp.”
A lengthy battle lies ahead
It is this alignment with Trump — both in friendship and in monetary policy — that has news outlets on the attack.
“A partisan operative has no business making policy at an independent central bank,” read one Bloomberg byline. Likewise, the Economist argued that Trump “is trying to change it [the Fed] from within.”
Such articles were a dime a dozen on Saturday, with just about every left-leaning outlet printing at least one story on why Moore’s nomination should be rejected. Nonetheless, Moore has rejected the notion that he will be partisan.
“I get that the Fed has to be independent of what the president wants,” he told the Washington Examiner. And in an interview with Bloomberg Television, Moore once again promised that Trump hasn’t asked him to do anything unethical.
“The only thing he told me was to pursue policies that are good for the American economy and for American workers,” Moore said of Trump. “He didn’t mention anything about differing with Chairman Powell.”
Moore’s nomination is now headed to the Senate for confirmation.
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