Economists Forecast Stephen Moore Wouldn't Be Good For Fed Post
"Almost universally, economists have spoken out and said this is not a fit candidate for a board position," said William Luther, who directs the Sound Money Project at the American Institute for Economic Research.
Moore has spent decades opining on economics — at the conservative Heritage Foundation, on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and on cable TV.
"I've been a economic policy person in Washington for well over 30 years," Moore told NPR's Morning Edition. "So I do think that I have probably more experience in this game than many, many other people and in fact a lot of the people who have served on the Federal Reserve Board."
It's precisely that track record that worries many economists.
"More than possibly any other economist in modern America, he has a track record of getting the big issues wrong," said Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan. "Not just occasionally but time after time."
During the Great Recession, for example, Moore complained that the Fed's efforts to prop up the economy with low interest rates would spark runaway inflation. That never materialized. Today, with unemployment below 4 percent, Moore is making the opposite case, warning that by raising interest rates last year, the Fed was causing a dangerous drop in prices, or deflation.
That prompted a testy exchange in December on CNN with Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell, who pointed out — correctly — that none of the indicators watched by the Fed show deflation.
Critics say that Moore's counterintuitive prescriptions for Fed policy — tight money in bad times, loose money in good — seem to be guided more by who's in the White House than any objective measure of the economy.
"If your goal is to stabilize the macroeconomy, then Stephen Moore's policies go in exactly the wrong direction," said Luther of the American Institute for Economic Research. "If instead your goal is to push Democrats out of office and get Republicans re-elected, then Stephen Moore's policies make perfect sense."
Opponents say that this partisan bent could jeopardize the Fed's reputation for independence and apolitical action.
Of course you will move the goalpost with another vague and evasive apologism.
