Larry Kudlow Cranks Propaganda Knob To Spinal Tap-ish ’11’ In Absurd Friday Press Junket

As is custom, Larry Kudlow made the TV rounds on Friday morning to celebrate how well the US economy is doing and simultaneously call for an emergency rate cut to rescue that same thriving economy.

Following a blockbuster April jobs report featuring a headline print that beat even the most optimistic estimate from 79 surveyed economists, Kudlow told Fox Business that he thinks the Fed is looking at cutting rates.

Here’s Larry or, as Fox called him on Friday, “the man of the hour”.

Never mind the fact that Jerome Powell said the Fed currently sees no case for moving in either direction (i.e., no strong case for a hike or a cut) on Wednesday.

It’s undoubtedly true that the Fed has pondered an “insurance cut” amid still subdued inflation, but Kudlow’s shameless parroting of Trump’s rate cut demands is exhausting – it’s injurious to the process of conducting monetary policy and it’s part and parcel of Trump’s broader push to erode the independence of America’s most important institutions.

We wrote extensively about this a week ago when Larry went on CNBC and insisted that rate cuts are still advisable despite the better-than-expected read on Q1 GDP.

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Here’s Why It’s Important To Call Out Larry Kudlow For The Thousandth Time

Kudlow also talked about Stephen Moore pulling out of consideration for the Fed. Brace yourself, because there are so many lies and punchlines crammed into the following short clip, that it’s hard to conceive of them all at one time:

First of all, do note that literally as Larry is speaking, a promotional message pops up at the bottom of the screen touting an upcoming interview with Stephen Moore. So, there’s one punchline for you.

But beyond that, Kudlow just told America that Moore’s decision (which of course wasn’t actually Moore’s decision, but we’ll get to that later) to bow out of contention for a Fed board seat had nothing to do with Stephen’s famously dubious track record. It is impossible to overstate how absurd it is for Kudlow to say that Moore has “an excellent record as an economist and a policy analyst.” For one thing, Moore is not an economist. We’ve been over this and over this, but as long as the administration and Fox continue to foist that lie on the public, we’ll continue to flatly refute it.

If you can get past being blatantly lied to about Moore’s credentials, you’re then left to ponder the mind-bogglingly ridiculous notion that Stephen’s “record” is anything other than laughable.

Allow us to just reiterate that Stephen Moore is one of those rare cases where if you had a track record of being consistently wrong, you’d actually have a better record than Moore. Because Stephen doesn’t even have the bonafides to be “wrong” when it comes to economics. Contending that he has been “wrong” is like an electrician telling me that I’m “wrong” about why the lights don’t work in my guest bedroom. It’s not so much that I’m “wrong” as it is that when it comes to how homes are wired, I don’t even have a plausible claim on an opinion. So, if I decide to weigh in on the matter, I cannot properly be described as being “correct” or “incorrect”. I’m just guessing – fumbling around in the dark (figuratively and literally in the case of my hypothetical wiring problem).

Importantly, none of that is a secret. Rather, it is the opposite of a secret. Stephen Moore’s claim to fame is, quite literally, being an economic charlatan. That is how he makes his living. He knows it, Larry Kudlow knows it and Congress knows it.

If you need a refresher when it comes to historical instances of Moore being moronic, please do review “The Unfathomable Stupidity Of Stephen Moore.” Or, just read Elizabeth Warren’s letter to Stephen here.

That being the case, the Trump fans among you are probably wondering how it came to be that such a man was ever considered for the Fed. To that I would encourage you to consider the possibility that perhaps the only person in America who isn’t in on the Stephen Moore joke is Donald Trump.

Shortly after his interview with state television, Kudlow showed up on Bloomberg TV. You’ll recall that on Thursday, just prior to Trump announcing on Twitter that Moore was no longer in the running for the Fed, Stephen told Bloomberg he was “all-in” and that Trump was “full-speed ahead”.

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

On Thursday, Bloomberg asked Kudlow to reconcile how it came to be that Moore found himself penning an absurdly obsequious letter to Trump withdrawing his name from consideration just hours after claiming to have pushed all his chips despite having a horrible hand.

Incredibly, Kudlow managed to further muddy the already filthy waters.

“He said he wanted to withdraw, that he and his bride just couldn’t stomach the personal attacks”, Kudlow said, describing a conversation he claims to have had with Moore on Wednesday night.

Asked by Bloomberg why Moore would go on television the next morning and claim to be “all-in” when he had, according to Kudlow’s account of a possibly-imaginary phone call, already decided to bow out, Larry said “I don’t know.”

Neither does anybody else.

This entire charade – the incessant pressure on the Fed to cut rates, the 24/7 effort to perpetuate the myth of the MAGA economic miracle, the patently false contention that Stephen Moore is a respected “economist” and the idea that quoting Moore and pointing to things he actually wrote and published is tantamount to a smear campaign – is unadulterated, state propaganda.

Period.