Trump as De Facto Fed Chair Is a Dangerous Idea
Threatening central bank independence is among the worst economic proposals ever floated by a major-party presidential candidate.
Politics and Fed policy are best separated.
Photographer: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images North AmericaDonald Trump appears to be totally serious about his plan to give presidents a say in monetary policy, a proposal that would undermine decades of Federal Reserve independence, unsettle markets and hurt the nation’s ability to control inflation in the long run. It’s one of the worst economic proposals ever floated by a major-party presidential candidate.
The idea was first discussed in a jarring Wall Street Journal report in April, citing unnamed sources, which my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Tyler Cowen wrote about at the time. Then last Thursday, the former president laid out his feelings on the matter at a press conference from Mar-a-Lago, and his running mate JD Vance defended the proposal in an interview aired Sunday on CNN. By now, anyone inclined to downplay the threat ought to reconsider.