Stephen Moore Pulls Out Of Fed ‘Process’, Sparing America Any Further Screwing

On Thursday morning, Trump Fed pick Stephen Moore showed up on Bloomberg TV to discuss a variety of topics, not the least of which was the controversy surrounding his presumed nomination to the Fed.

Moore is eminently unqualified for the job and everyone (including Stephen and with the possible exception of the president) knows it.

The nomination – which was never made official – was mercilessly lampooned from the word go. Moore’s long history of supply-side sock-puppetry, carelessness with facts and reputation as a famously idiotic charlatan made him a perfect fit for the Trump administration, but for lawmakers, Stephen’s nomination to the Fed was a bridge too far.

Media reports about a long-standing debt to the IRS, a dispute with his ex-wife over unpaid alimony and, most recently, the unearthing of a series of controversial comments about child labor and women, further imperiled Moore’s Fed bid.

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Moore’s penchant for criticizing Jerome Powell via a ridiculous series of obsequious “columns” and opinion pieces made it abundantly clear that his sole purpose at the Fed would be to push Trump’s agenda. Indeed, it was an Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal which reportedly prompted the president to consider Moore for the job.

During his Thursday interview with Bloomberg, he claimed to be undeterred by the withering criticism he’s received over the past several weeks.

“I’m all-in”, he told the network. “My biggest ally is the president [and] he’s full speed ahead”, Moore went on to boast.

Or maybe not, because just hours later, Trump announced (on Twitter, of course), that Moore was pulling out of “the process”.

“Steve Moore, a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person, has decided to withdraw from the Fed process”, Trump lamented, telling a lie along the way (Moore is not, in fact, an economist).

The president went on to claim that “Steve won the battle of ideas including Tax Cuts and deregulation which have produced non-inflationary prosperity for all Americans.” Trump now inserts references to low inflation whenever he mentions the economy as a thinly-veiled jab at Powell.

Here is Moore’s statement:

Given the rather glaring discrepancy between Moore pulling out of the “process” on Thursday afternoon and claiming he was “all-in” as of Thursday morning, one can’t help but speculate about whether something (else) might have come up that suddenly derailed things. If that is indeed the case, it will likely come out in short order.

That said, it’s possible that Trump finally came around to just how ridiculous Moore’s nomination would be. “I’m going to do what the president wants me to do”, Stephen said Thursday, prior to Trump’s tweet, adding that although he was willing “to keep fighting” amid the backlash, he would “throw in the towel” if Trump thought that was the best decision.

This comes less than two weeks after Herman Cain removed himself from consideration after several GOP lawmakers indicated his nomination would be dead on arrival.

Moore implicitly criticized Trump’s bombastic call for a one-point rate cut on Thursday as well, which may have irritated the president. “I’m not so sure I agree with the White House that we should cut rates by an entire percentage point,” Moore said. “I just don’t see the case for that right now.”

Notably (or not), Moore’s appearance on Bloomberg also included a scathing critique of modern monetary theory. “Can you imagine the idea that we just keep printing money and somehow that’s just going to create growth,” Moore said. “The fact that people are actually taking that serious is disturbing.”

Trump’s policies have been variously equated with a kind of MMT-lite, to the extent funding fiscal stimulus with debt and then demanding the Fed purchase that same debt amounts to arm’s-length deficit financing.

If you’re a Moore fan, don’t fret too much, though, because Trump assured everyone on Thursday that “Steve” would continue to inform US economic policy. “I’ve asked Steve to work with me toward future economic growth in our Country”, the president said.

Moore also told Bloomberg the following on Thursday morning:

I mean you’ve got to admit, if I were on the Fed it would be a lot more fun to cover the Fed.

Alas, I suppose Fed coverage will remain as mundane as ever.

“Womp, womp”.