Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Sure, let’s trash the economy too

Leaked Transcripts of FOX Interview Just Revealed Trump’s Incoherent Comments on the Federal Reserve


Transcripts from a Trump interview with FOX News’ Maria Bartiromo that will air Sunday morning have just leaked and they suggest what many Americans already feared — that this president is somehow mentally incapacitated.  

Whether, as numerous prominent psychiatrists have suggested, he is mentally ill, or he is suffering from early-onset dementia, or he simply is simply too unqualified to have any idea of what he’s talking about, this president’s monosyllabic speech patterns and garbled monologues have many Americans, including prominent Republicans, questioning his fitness for office.

But his answer to Ms. Bartiromo’s questions about the Federal Reserve may take the cake.

When the prominent business journalist asked Trump if he was considering Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor as possible appointments for Fed Chairman and Vice-Chairman, the leader of the free world literally said these words:

It is in my thinking.  And I have a couple of other things in my thinking.  But I like talent.  And they are both very talented people.  And it’s a hard decision.  It’s actually a very important decision.  People have no — most people have no idea how important that position is.  That position is actually — more — a lot of people get rid of the Fed.Take the Fed out.  That’s a very important position.  It’s also important psychotically.  If the right person is there a lot of good things can happen.  I think I’m doing a good job for businesses in that way.  People are coming into the country; you saw what happened with Foxconn going to Wisconsin.
Presumably, he was telling Bartiromo that he is both considering the two economists for top Federal Reserve jobs and is also considering dissolving the Federal Reserve.  However, the language he uses to express the crossroads at which he finds himself leaves everything to be desired.

“A lot of people get rid of the Fed.”

“It’s also important psychotically.”

This is a man who has lost command of the English language, if he ever had it in the first place.  It certainly does not sound like a president.

Meanwhile, many have speculated that Trump wants to oust Obama Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, so he can continue his streak of trying to erase the glowing legacy of America’s first black president.

Abolishing the Federal Reserve is a position popular among Libertarians like Ron Paul and other far-right conservatives who believe that printing money creates an artificial sense of security that could collapse at any time.

Last year, Trump met with (and considered as Treasury Secretary) former CEO of the bank BB&T, John Allison, who touts dissolving the Fed and returning to the gold standard on which America based its economic system prior to 1933.

However, without the Fed lowering interest rates during the Great Recession, millions more Americans would have ended up underwater than already had.

Abolishing the Fed would leave average Americans more vulnerable than ever to another market crisis.

Trump clearly understands none of this, however.  His words betray him. 

LUCIA BRAWLEY IS A HARVARD- AND YALE-EDUCATED WRITER, PRODUCER, ACTOR, AND POLITICAL ORGANIZER. SHE RUNS THE PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL FACEBOOK GROUP CONSENTING TO LEAD. TO LEARN MORE, PLEASE GO TO LUCIABRAWLEY.COM.