WashPost economics pundit and pseudo know it all Robert Samuelson, whom I often ridicule but sometimes praise, is up to his oldest and most tedious trick, “even-handedness”, commenting on what he calls the “schoolyard brawl” between President Trump and Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Samuelson sums up recent developments thusly:
After the Fed’s decision last week to cut its key lending rate (the Fed funds rate on overnight loans among banks) by a quarter of a percentage point (to a range of 1.75 percent to 2 percent), apparently not enough for Trump, the president unleashed one of his furious tirades. “Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve Fail Again,” Trump tweeted. “No ‘guts,’ no sense, no vision!”
Previously, Trump had called Powell a “bonehead” and an “enemy” of the country, comparing him to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Just about the only thing Trump hasn’t done is insult Powell’s mother. But who knows what happens next?
Well, who does know? But I do know one thing: all the vituperation in this “schoolyard brawl” has been entirely one-sided. Powell (of course) has said absolutely nothing against the president. What Samuelson calls “the Trump-Powell feud” is non-existent. What there is is Trump’s attempt to make Powell his bitch. And Samuelson implies that Powell’s refusal to be Trump’s bitch is on the same moral level as Trump’s attempt to make Powell his bitch. Which, when you stop to think about it, is absolute nonsense.
Afterwords
The “meat” of Samuelson’s column is really derived from a recent “working paper” from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Board by Òscar Jordà and Alan M. Taylor rather thunderously titled “Riders on the Storm“, arguing that central banks like the Fed have more limited control over interest rates than is commonly believed, that in fact “various long-term factors” are more powerful than the banks. Interesting, yes, but apparently not as important as dressing up a vicious and unscrupulous presidential beatdown of a hapless bureaucrat as a “schoolyard brawl”.
