FEDERAL RESERVE/NOMINATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Stephen Moore said he would not be a ‘sycophant’ for President Trump if nominated and confirmed for a seat on the Federal Reserve. And he is sorry he called for the Fed chairman to step down after the central bank raised interest rates. In an interview on Tuesday [3-26-19], Mr. Moore, who is expected to be nominated by Mr. Trump for an open seat at the Fed, said he hoped he would get the chance to win over its chairman, Jerome H. Powell, as well as the economists who have questioned his imminent nomination. Mr. Moore, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic adviser to Mr. Trump, is a relatively unconventional choice for the job. He has made his name largely by championing tax cuts, not monetary policy, and he is pushing an unorthodox theory on how the central bank should set interest rates. His nomination has won early praise from Republican senators. But it has drawn fire from Democrats, who call Mr. Moore an ideologue and beholden to Mr. Trump. Conservative economists, like Harvard’s N. Gregory Mankiw, a chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, question his fitness for the job.”
–Jim Tankersley and Neil Irwin, “He’s No ‘Sycophant’ for Trump, Expected Fed Nominee Says,” The New York Times online, March 26, 2019