Noah Smith, Columnist

Kudlow Is a Sign Republicans Are Out of Economic Ideas

Trump's new top aide shows the GOP has little to offer beyond tax cuts for high earners.

March 14, 2018 at 9:44 PM UTC

Noah Smith is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.

A tax cut? Thumbs up.
Photographer: CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Why did President Donald Trump choose Larry Kudlow, a man who disagrees strongly with the president’s tariff policy, to be the new head of his National Economic Council? Kudlow will replace Gary Cohn, who walked off the job after failing to prevent Trump from embracing protectionism. Why would Trump replace one dissenter with another?

Perhaps it’s because Kudlow is a cable-news commentator, and Trump watches a lot of cable news. But more fundamentally, it’s because the Republican brain trust’s bench is getting thin. Kudlow isn’t an economist, and his record of economic predictions is extremely poor. But it also seems like there are just so few credible economic thinkers willing to stand up and sign their name to the Trump economic agenda.