Herman Cain't Be On Federal Reserve :(
Nein Nein Nein.
Donald Trump announced on Twitter this afternoon that one of his choices for the Federal Reserve Board, pizza human and Pokemon enthusiast Herman Cain, hasĀ noped right out of contentionĀ for the position. Too bad! Cain, the sexually harassy former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, hasn't said why he changed his mind after vowing last week to walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain and do anything he could to keep Donald Trump happy with monetary policy. But don't worry -- this is the Trump administration, which never gives up on a bad idea, so just wait a few months and we'll be hearing about Herman Cain, Secretary of the Space Force or some damn thing.
Trump, for his part, was far more gracious to Cain for not taking a job in his administration than he is toward two thirds of those he actually appoints:
My friend Herman Cain, a truly wonderful man, has asked me not to nominate him for a seat on the Federal Reserve Boā¦ https: //t.co/49kXbzXBwv
ā Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)Ā 1555949798.0Ā
Stands to reason Trump would call the handsy stupid millionaire who wasĀ proudly ignorant of foreign placesĀ a "truly wonderful man." TheĀ not-quite nominationĀ was doomed when four Republican senators announced they would oppose Cain's confirmation.
Still, Cain made all sorts of noises about soldiering on, at least last week, when heĀ toldĀ theĀ Wall Street JournalĀ he was "very committed" to the confirmation fight. He even wrote anĀ op-edĀ for theĀ JournalĀ in which he argued the Fed board has too many damned educated people on it, arguing it was time to end "the professor standard" for membership on the Federal Reserve:
The Fed still operates on the "professor standard," enshrined with Bill Clinton's nominations of pure academics. Their textbooks say strong economic growth, particularly strong wage growth, causes inflation, which Fed policy should temper. Both the Bush and Obama administrations perpetuated the professor standard, and both presided over income stagnation.
That's also sort of like, nuts, because while Yr Dok Zoom is no Agronomist, even I know that curbing inflation has been the Fed's raisin d'eternity since forever. Still, Cain said what America really needs is a dollar that is strong like bull, and who better to deliver that than a close personal friend of Donald Trump?
"The professor standard will not challenge itself ā that much has been proved," he explained, because professors only like other professors. "That's why my voice is needed at the Fed." He has a point: No one would ever call him professorial, or even necessarily sentient. (Also, he seems not to have noted just how much backstabbing is involved in academia.)
The New York Times points out that Cain wasn't altogether without a nice-looking line on his vita: "Mr. Cain is a former businessman and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City[.]" Trump probably thought that was quite the big deal, although it turns out that was "an advisory position that largely involves linking the regional Fed bank to the business community."
The Times also points out Cain has had an awfully flexible set of opinions about monetary policy, particularly
his shifting views on interest rates, which Mr. Cain said should be higher under President Barack Obama, when the nation was struggling to recover from the 2008 financial crisis, but now says should stay low under Mr. Trump, when the economy is growing.
In any case, now Herman Cain will have to wait a while for his next grifty comeback, and we can look forward to learning even more embarrassing news about Trump's other Fed pick, TVĀ pretend-economics expertĀ Stephen Moore. Poor lad has had a heck of a time lately, what with having anĀ IRS lien against him for $75,000Ā in unpaid income taxes, and also having been held in contempt of court for failing to pay his ex wifeĀ over $300,000 in alimony, child support and other moneyĀ in a divorce settlement. It's the sort of minor oversight anyone could make, can't see why anyone would have a problem with financial policy being set by a deadbeat. God, you people are so picky.
It is now your open thread!
[Ā NYTĀ /Ā CNBCĀ /Ā GuardianĀ / Headline pun stoled fromĀ Erich RauchwayĀ on Twitter]
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Herman Cain is the Bill Cosby of Clarence Thomases.
Ok, so some asshole created a watch party on the Harris grassroots site saying that they were going to sponsor a watch party for yesterday's Town Hall. On the same street that Bernie had his campaign headquarters near the King Center. So I show up and it's a non-existent building - actually a pocket park that has a homeless camp in it. And so I am searching my email and calendar to make sure I had it right. This asshole had canceled it via email via fax at 9 am day of. Well, I only check my email twice a day at best. People know to text or DM if something is urgent. Yeah, send me an email and then text me to go look. In the 11 years that I have been active in federal races, this is the first time that an organizer did not text something so important.So the site asked me whether I had a good experience and I was Hell To The No. With a quick comment. My task for tomorrow morning is to draft a "cease and desist" letter to the organizer, telling him to delete my personal info and that if he makes any further effort to contact me, I will be reporting that contact to the authorities as harassment. With a cc: to Kamala' people, Stacey's people and the Georgia Dems. I don't fucking play. I hope the site makes hosts register before they can create events. No email or phone was provided to attendees. So the website needs to conform to "best practices" too.The good news, I struck up a conversation with the one friendly band of homeless. They have a dog, that is really well tended to. In earlier times, they'd be called hoboes or gypsies. The one more personable one asked me if I could spare any money. And I said, "no man, my check from Uncle Sugar doesn't come until Wednesday" so he asked, "Do you have an extra blanket in your car". I said, "I used to before my dog died but all my stuff is in my house now. But I can swing by tomorrow and drop one off." So after my storytelling event tonight, I'm taking this dude a blanket and some almond butter from my pantry. And since I wasted $5 on parking, I went into a small bar with a Caribbean flava, had a glass of wine and talked to some of those guys about their views about politics. Now, people from the islands always have an opinion! That was fun. And one guy walked me to my car as it was 10 pm by then. Three cops were taking their break in front of bodego that needed some idiots rousted. Good news? There were leaving my band of hobos alone! Community policing, baby. So yeah, let's KEEP America great, motherfuckers. And if you read my whole TL;DR, here is a reward.https://www.youtube.com/wat...