Memo: Voters Approve Active Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Oppose Trump's Fed Chair-in-Waiting
By Ethan Winter, Analyst, Data for Progress; Sam Bell, Policy Director, Founder, Employ America
The coronavirus pandemic has plunged the economy into recession. Unemployment has spiked and growth has stalled.
In the meantime, nominees Judy Shelton and Chris Waller are being considered for positions on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
Shelton spent the worst years of the Great Recession advocating for the gold standard and deriding low interest rates. Rather than monetary flexibility, she advocates a global common currency fixed to a tangible asset. She told Politico in 2017, “I would be in favor of a very future-oriented, neutral reference point that is universally accepted... It doesn’t have to be gold but I don’t know what would be better.” Her proposals would put monetary policy in the hands of speculators in gold, oil, or foreign currencies.
Her criticisms of expansionary monetary policy and fiscal stimulus are also misplaced. As Fed Chair Jay Powell said recently, “This is the time to use the great fiscal power of the United States to do what we can to support the economy and try to get through this with as little damage to the longer run productive capacity of the economy as possible.”
