Janet Yellen: Trump Is an Even Bigger Idiot Than He Looks
Janet Yellen: Trump Is an Even Bigger Idiot Than He Looks
The former Federal Reserve chair cannot adequately express how dumb our president is.
by Bess Levin
February 25, 2019 5:56 pm
When you’re actively working for the president of the United States, you can’t just come out and publicly say, “This guy is a complete and total moron,” however accurate or obvious the statement may be. Oh sure, you can say it in private, or in an anonymous op-ed, but attaching your name to such comments is generally considered inadvisable if you want to stay employed. That’s why, during the period in which Janet Yellen served as the chair of the Federal Reserve under Donald Trump, we never heard her telling reporters things like, “He makes the cast of Bachelor in Paradise look smart,” or “I honestly and truly believe my Schnauzer could do a better job.” But as of last February, Yellen no longer works for Trump—because he literally thought she was too short for the gig—and thus is feeling a bit freer in her choice of words.
In an interview with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal, Yellen was asked, point blank: “Do you think the president has a grasp of macroeconomic policy?” And instead of dancing around the issue or offering some kind of “I don’t know what’s in his heart” answer, she responded, “No, I do not.” That most of us had a hunch this was the case does not change the fact that it’s shocking Yellen would just come out and say it! And, apparently, macroeconomics is just one of several things she thinks President Buy and Sell knows nothing about, the others being international trade, business, and the entire purpose of the Federal Reserve.
Yellen:: Well, I doubt that he would even be able to say that the Fed’s goals are maximum employment and price stability, which is the goals that Congress have assigned to the Fed. He’s made comments about the Fed having an exchange-rate objective in order to support his trade plans, or possibly targeting the U.S. balance of trade. And, you know, I think comments like that shows a lack of understanding of the impact of the Fed on the economy, and appropriate policy goals. . . . I think [his lack of understanding about the effect of his trade tariffs] is . . . creating a lot of uncertainty for businesses, and I think my own view is that those shifts are likely to be adverse for the U.S. economy. . . . And when I continually hear focus by the president and some of his advisers on remedying bilateral trade deficits with other trade partners, I think almost any economist would tell you that there’s no real meaning to bilateral trade deficits, and it’s not an appropriate objective of policy.
Other things that keep Yellen up at night include Trump’s apparent lack of understanding about the Federal Reserve being an independent organization, and how crucial it is for the economy that Americans have confidence in the central bank. (Since appointing Jerome Powell, the president has blamed the Fed for market sell-offs; complained that he should be given “help” in the form of low interest rates; told reporters “the Fed is going loco,”; insisted his “gut” knows more about economics than Powell’s brain; and declared, “The only problem our economy has is the Fed. . . . The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch—he can’t putt!”). “President Trump’s comments about Chair Powell and about the Fed . . . concern me,” Yellen told Ryssdal, “because if that becomes concerted, I think it does have the impact, especially if conditions in the U.S. for any reason were to deteriorate, it could undermine confidence in the Fed. And I think that that would be a bad thing.”
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God help us. 
