There was some proof that President Donald Trump was a major proponent of currency manipulation during the 2016 presidential campaign, but now the evidence is piling up and he sounds like one big Keynesian.
It now seems like he is going to finally forego a strong-dollar policy that was implemented by former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s – though the greenback hast lost 95 percent of its value since 1913.
Speaking in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, according to a transcript posted by Politico, the president confirmed he doesn’t like the U.S. dollar to be too strong because “lots of bad things happen” when this occurs.
“I like a dollar that’s not too strong. I mean, I’ve seen strong dollars. And frankly, other than the fact that it sounds good, lots of bad things happen with a strong dollar,” Trump said. “I do like low interest rates. I mean, you know, I’m not making that a big secret. I think low interest rates are good.”
At the beginning of the campaign trail, Trump advocated for higher rates to benefit the American people, conceding low rates only help people like himself.
He also revealed, in an off-the-record discussion, that if economic adviser Gary Cohn were in charge of the Federal Reserve, interest rates would go up one-eighth of a point (he was interrupted at this point).
“Yeah, exactly. And then you leave. By the way, then the market crashes and it goes through the roof. You know, what you say. And then he goes off and he’ll play golf and relax for the next 30 or…” Trump noted.
If you thought that a Trump administration would overhaul the United States central bank and abandon Keynesian policies then you have been mistaken all along.
Trump graduated Wharton. How could anyone believe that he was not a classical economist by education?