When Donald Trump campaigned last spring in the Republican primaries, he touted his tax cuts in a special way. To give them credibility, he would declare proudly that economist Larry Kudlow loved them.
Indeed, Kudlow did. He had helped put together Trump’s economic plan and later called on to refine it. And Kudlow, a senior economist in the Reagan White House and two Wall Street firms before hosting a CNBC show on economics for a decade, had early on endorsed Trump for president.
So it was no surprise that Kudlow, 69, might be in line for a major economics post in the Trump administration. He has an additional asset. He is a favorite of Republicans and conservatives, including Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, the tax-writing committee.
Kudlow had his eye on the National Economic Council in the White House, which coordinates administration economic policy. But he was passed over and Trump installed Gary Cohn, the chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, as NEC director. Trump, oddly enough, had often attacked Goldman Sachs in campaign speeches.
In mid-December, Kudlow was reported to be Trump’s choice to head the Council of Economic Advisers, which analyzes economic trends and advises the president on policy. But that wasn’t quite true. Kudlow was merely under consideration for the CEA job. Now, more than two weeks later, he still is.
Kudlow has been left in an awkward position. It would be untoward to campaign for the CEA post. And he hasn’t. (I haven’t spoken to him.) Yet he is a perfect fit for the job, given his experience, his tie to Trump, and his familiarity with Congress. “I cannot think of a better choice,” Brady said.
And he would also be something of an antidote to the protectionists that Trump has already hired for key positions. Kudlow, a free trader, insisted recently that Trump isn’t “a major protectionist in its purest form. I don’t expect him to start slapping big tariffs here and there.” At the least, Kudlow would be a cool-headed voice on trade at the White House.
Chatter in the Trump orbit has cast Kudlow as “too ideological.” This is because he is committed to supply-side tax cuts. As it stands, “the tax cut program will put a booster rocket underneath the economy,” Kudlow said recently. But it will surely need a defender against efforts to modify the cuts, both at the White House and in Congress. That would be a role for Kudlow.
He is hardly without critics. He’s been faulted for dismissing the possibility of a recession in 2008. He was wrong, as was practically everyone in the world of economics including Ben Bernanke while he was Federal Reserve chairman.
“You show me an elite economic mind who doesn’t have some significant missed call on their track record and I’ll show you a delicious butter cake that helps you lose weight,” investment adviser David Bahnsen wrote in Forbes.
Bahnsen added: “In a day and age where the neo-Keynesians want us to believe secular stagnation is the new normal, the need of the hour…is someone who can promote an agenda of growth and prosperity…The need of the hour is Larry Kudlow.”
Kudlow, however, lacks as Ph.D. in economics. Though three-member Council of Economic Advisers usually consists of academic economists, Kudlow wouldn’t be the first chairman who lacked that degree. Alan Greenspan didn’t get his until after he was CEA chairman. Leon Keyserling, President Truman’s chairman, never got one.
In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal turned tables on Kudlow’s left-wing critics. “One of the more amusing campaigns is the progressive assault on the prospect that Larry Kudlow could lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Can there be a more compelling endorsement?”
If he looked around, Trump would recognize these critics. They don’t like him or most of his Cabinet picks either. He’s spurned them before and should do so once more, this time by choosing Kudlow as CEA head.
