Make sense??

Trump's economic policies starting to make sense, former Fed board member says

By Nick Gass

Donald Trump's economic message showing newfound signs of coherence, according to an op-ed by a former board member of the Federal Reserve published Thursday.

"About a month ago, I urged the presidential candidates to explain what policies and leadership they would like to see at the Federal Reserve," Narayana Kocherlakota, the maverick president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 2009 to 2015, wrote in a column for Bloomberg View.

Kocherlakota said he was "glad to see" Trump discussing issues related to the Federal Reserve in an interview with Fortune magazine published April 21.

Pointing to Trump's call to rebuild infrastructure and the military as well as reducing debt, Kocherlakota interpreted it as "two forms of fiscal stimulus."

"Both could have a beneficial effect on the U.S. and global economy, creating the demand for goods and services needed to get inflation and employment back up to healthier levels," he noted, though such policies would depend on how the Fed responded with respect to raising interest rates or leaving as they are.

Trump would appear to support the Fed leaving interest rates alone, he continued, comparing it to "what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has attempted in Japan."

Still, Trump has some questions to answer with respect to his attitude toward inflation, Kocherlakota suggested, such as whether he would prefer the Fed keep interest rates low even after inflation surpasses the central bank's 2 percent target.

"If not, then the coordination of monetary and fiscal policy is a welcome way to help the Fed achieve its objectives without resorting to novel policy measures like negative interest rates," he wrote. "If so, then he is advocating the kind of policies that led to the Great Inflation of the 1960s and 1970s."

Trump also needs to answer whether he would be comfortable with an inflation target higher than 2 percent, he added. Rates higher than 2 percent, he continued, would allow "the Fed more room to support fiscal stimulus of the kind suggested by Trump."

"It’s great that Trump, currently the leading contender for the Republican nomination, is starting to answer" questions, Kocherlakota concluded. "Would Hillary Clinton, the leading contender for the Democratic nomination, be as willing to pursue a policy of low taxation, high government spending and low interest rates to address the country’s economic ills? Someone should ask her."

Kocherlakota began his tenure at the Minnesota Fed an ardent inflation hawk, but changed his mind in September 2012, when he turned heads in the economics world by arguing for a more expansionary monetary policy.