This morning, Stephen Moore told reporters his nomination for the Federal Reserve Board would not be pulled. “I’m all in,” he told Bloomberg News. “My biggest ally is the president. He’s full speed ahead.” Like most Moore predictions, this quickly proved to be completely wrong. By lunchtime, Moore was out.
Moore’s nomination came about when Trump-administration economist Lawrence Kudlow recommended Moore, his co-author, close friend, and partner in extreme voodoo-economics wrongness. Trump impulsively announced the pick.
Moore’s total lack of relevant expertise — he has admitted, “I’m not an expert in monetary policy,” which is like applying for a job at an auto plant by boasting you’re bad at assembling cars — did not doom his nomination. Nor did his record of dogmatic and comically misguided economic claims. Rather, his nomination was deep-sixed by a combination of misogynistic writings and behaviors.
Moore was accused of flagrantly cheating on his wife, whom he mocked publicly as a “loss leader” who “doesn’t have a job” and reportedly stiffed on child support. He also fantasized in his writings about picking up a younger and more attractive partner. His columns included rants against women’s sports and proposed that women not be allowed to officiate or even sell beer at basketball games. Moore explained he was joking, which is true in a sense, but the joke is clearly a hyperbolic version of his actual beliefs.
Moore’s statement to President Trump announcing his withdrawal begins, “I am honored and grateful you asked me to serve on the Federal Reserve Board,” which makes it the first such notice in memory to quote Luca Brasi. Moore piously added that he could not bear the pain an extended nomination fight would create for his family. “The unrelenting attacks on my character,” he writes, “have become untenable for me and my family, and three more months of this would be too hard on us.”
His poor family — they’ve already been through so much, what with his adultery and denial of child support!
The lesson for Trump is that he probably can stack the Federal Reserve Board with partisan loyalists and party hacks — provided he has the patience to vet them first.
