Back when President Donald Trump took office, when he said he had an economic policy other than imperial wars, he made Stephen Miran his Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, who had an ingenious economic scheme. The Administration would use an aggressive policy of tariffs to cut imports on which the American economy had become dependent. It would push down the value of the dollar to discourage imports, even to the extent that these policies could cause a “brief, shallow recession,” as Miran wrote in January. It would counteract these moves by (also aggressively) lowering the Federal Reserve’s discount rate, pushing aside Fed Chair Jerome Powell if he blocked this. The tariffs and the lower dollar would meanwhile make the United States again into a manufacturing superpower exporting to the world, and raking in the world’s cash for investment.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a career hedge fund operator and an arrogant man, who could appreciate this stealing a march on the supposed pathetic nations of the world, was a strong backer of Miran’s scheme, who confidently forecast that Federal Reserve rates would necessarily go down in 2026 (from 3.75% to about 2.5%) whether Powell wanted to or no. This was, after all, a George Soros associate, a man who threw a punch at a fellow Administration official in an argument, and exulted about seizing Iran’s currency and executing a run against it to promote popular rebellion.
