OPINION:
In July, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote in an op-ed about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in The Hill: “Even though he leads the world’s largest economy, he is a lawyer, not an economist — an anomaly among Fed chairs.” It’s unsettling to know that on my first day in macroeconomics class, I had more formal education in economics than the guy steering our $30 trillion economy.
Maybe if Mr. Powell had a degree in economics instead of political science, he would know that the price of a new car means nothing to those who were laid off because high interest rates made it impossible for the company they work for to expand. I’ve been there; it’s clear that Mr. Powell has not.
Maybe if he had that economics degree, he would also realize that competition among banks should be the sole determinant of interest rates and that our economy will never “overheat” as long as competition is sufficient and energy prices are low. Maybe he would figure out that the consumer price index calculation is based on the assumption that consumers are naive and will keep buying things over and over again regardless of price. Maybe he would know that bringing down prices by contracting the economy so people have less money to spend breaches ethical standards.
On July 21, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” “What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful.” Future economists will have a good laugh over the way we have let a private entity take control of our economy for 112 years.
According to Iowa State University’s Ask An Economist, I am the only person who has correctly predicted the unemployment rate publicly four years ahead of its release. Perhaps this letter should be worth a read by the Fed.
BEN FURLEIGH
Port Charlotte, Florida
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