Yesterday I honestly couldn't think of a single reason why Trump would be considering former GOP presidential candidate and failed pizza mogul Herman Cain for a position on the board of the Federal Reserve, but I may have found one.
Cain appeared on the Fox Business channel this morning where he appeared to criticize the Fed for keeping a close eye on inflation rather than deflation.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former pizza chain executive Herman Cain, who is under consideration for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, said on Friday the central bank should be more concerned about deflation than inflation. [...]
“I would try to encourage the Fed not to make inflation a fear factor because deflation ... is more of a fear factor than inflation,” Cain said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
Deflation and inflation can both be a problem, but we're nowhere even close to seeing deflation in America right now.
The Federal Reserve and their chairman Jerome Powell (pictured above) were more or less forced to raise interest rates several times in 2018 to prevent inflation from increasing more than it already has. It's normal to see slow and steady inflation when the greater economy is in good health, but Trump's trade war and other economic policies contributed have to higher inflation as the cost of basic goods, health care, and housing have all increased more than they otherwise would have under a different president.
With very few exceptions, the United States has not seen a period of significant deflation in nearly 100 years, but Herman Cain may have told Trump exactly what he wanted to hear during his recent visit to the White House. There's no doubt in my mind that Cain spoke to Trump like one idiot to another; two men who have no idea how anything works but are still certain they know how everything works.