The Schizophrenic Wall Street Journal

In today’s (Jan. 31) Wall Street Journal there is a top-of-the-page editorial entitled “Trump Dams the Regulatory Flood” that lavishly praises President Trump’s recent deregulatory executive order.  The editoral ends with this:  “If Mr. Trump can break up the Washington central planning that is again misallocating resources, the resulting job creation and new investment would be a great legacy (emphasis added).”

Then at the top of the very next page the Journal highlights an op-ed that advocates more central planning!  Written by former Fed bureaucrat Kevin Warsh, it is entitled “America Needs a Steady, Strategic Fed.”  It could have had the synonymous title, “America Needs a Steady, Central-Planning Bureaucracy.”  The author correctly refers to Fed bureaucrats as “Central” Bankers, which of course they are, because they do play the role of central planners.  The problem with Janet Yellen’s central planning, says Kevin Warsh, is that it is too short-sighted and should be more “medium-term,” say, for five years.  Doesn’t this sound a lot like the old Soviet Union’s failed “five-year plans,” Comrade Warsh?

 

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10:08 am on January 31, 2017