Stephen Moore Tells Fox We Need Rate Cuts, Requires Access To Secret Fed Data To Determine How Many

Mr. Moore is superbly underqualified for the role for which he has been nominated.

That’s what Rep. Carolyn Maloney (she’s vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee), told Senators Mike Crapo and Sherrod Brown of the Senate banking committee in a letter on Tuesday.

Maloney cited Moore’s “out of the mainstream views” and also his “record of partisan statements that casts doubt on his ability to serve independently as a member of the central bank.”

As Reuters notes, “the two-page letter, which includes a list of citations, ups the political pressure around Moore’s nomination, even before his name has been officially submitted to the Senate for approval as a nominee.”

On Monday, Stephen described the background check he’s currently being subjected to as part of the process, as being “about as pleasant as a colonoscopy.”

While we imagine that process isn’t particularly “pleasant” for anyone, we’re going to go out on a limb here and suggest it’s being exacerbated in Moore’s case by things like, to name two, a dispute with the IRS and an extremely unfortunate incident that unfolded in 2013 when Stephen failed to pay his ex-wife some $330,000 in alimony and child support, leading a court in Fairfax County, Va. to send police, two real estate agents and a locksmith to his home.

Between that, his shameless parroting of the President’s talking points around the desirability of pro-cyclical monetary policy late in the cycle and, of course, the fact that he isn’t an economist or a businessman of any real standing, you can understand why Stephen is, frankly, a joke.

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The Unfathomable Stupidity Of Stephen Moore

But that hasn’t stopped him from weighing in breathlessly on monetary policy during the (pre)nomination process, something that wouldn’t be normal or advisable even for a qualified candidate, let alone for a stone, cold moron who, just four months ago, called for chair Powell’s figurative head.

Late last month, Stephen made headlines (and arguably contributed to a fleeting bout of rates volatility) when he told The New York Times that the Fed should cut rates by 50bp “immediately”, a call that was subsequently echoed by Larry Kudlow and then Donald Trump, who naturally took things a step further, calling for a resumption of QE, despite not having any real conception of what QE actually is.

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Stephen Moore Calls For Immediate 50bp Rate Cut, Was ‘Really Furious’ At Jerome Powell In December

That brings us neatly to Wednesday, when Moore showed up on Fox Business (of course) to weigh in (again) on Fed policy.

Predictably, this cameo was wholly farcical and included Moore reiterating that he was “critical” of the Fed’s December hike.

Of course “critical” is a bit of an understatement. Stephen lost his mind in December, or at least he pretended to, probably in the interest of currying favor with Trump, something he (Stephen) has been trying to do for quite a while via Op-Eds, TV appearances and, of course, an actual book called “Trumponomics.”

Moore went on to tell Fox that the December hike “was unwise and should be reversed” and he went further still. Asked if the Fed should keep cutting rates after atoning for the “sins” of 2018, Stephen said “maybe” before hilariously suggesting that the reason he can’t make a definitive determination about that is because he “doesn’t see all the data the Fed has.”

Stephen Moore on Fed: December rate increase was a mistake https://t.co/POfFR38QVF @MorningsMaria @FoxBusiness

— Maria Bartiromo (@MariaBartiromo) April 10, 2019

Suffice to say Moore wouldn’t know what to do with that data if he had it and really, it’s not even clear what secret data he’s talking about there, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the notion that the Fed sees a lot more than he does.

Also, note that Fox insists on using “Economist” to describe Moore, despite the fact that Stephen isn’t an economist. That is not a subjective/partisan assessment, it is a fact. Let me say this again: Stephen Moore is not and economist. Fox is lying to the American public by calling him one.

Finally, Moore insisted that despite calling for Powell to be fired in a wildly ridiculous “column” for IBD (which is just about the only market-focused outlet less venerable than Fox), he “wants the Fed chair to be successful.”

As a reminder, Moore called Powell “entirely tone-deaf”, accused him of employing “crackerjack” logic and described Q4’s market declines in terms of 787s as follows:

Market fears about [Powell’s] bad judgment have cut the value of all U.S. stocks by about $4.5 trillion, which is enough to buy 16,000 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Because isn’t that the way everyone thinks about their portfolio? “How many Dreamliners can I now not buy thanks to the Fed?”

This is a complete, and utter farce and hopefully, someone will convince Trump to abort this Damien-esque spawn before it’s too late.

Finally, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s John Oliver’s characteristically hilarious take on Moore and Herman Cain…