(Kitco News) - U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to nominate Herman Cain, former Republican presidential candidate and a long-standing gold bug, for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, according to media reports.
“Trump plans to announce his selection very soon, said three people, who asked not be identified discussing the nomination because it hasn’t been announced,” Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Cain is an ardent supporter of the return to the gold standard. He spoke about it in detail during his 2012 Republican presidential nomination campaign, which he dropped out of at the end of 2011 due to sexual harassment allegations.
In a 2012 op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal, Cain laid out why he supports the return to the gold standard.
“However imperfect a gold standard may be, it remains the best among all alternatives. The empirical data for both the classic gold standard, which I favor — and even the flawed ‘gold-exchange’ standard, as we had under the Bretton Woods system — are impressive. Economic growth was stronger, unemployment rates lower, the price level more stable, and recessions less frequent and less severe than under the present system … A gold standard is to the moochers and looters in government what sunlight and garlic are to vampires,” Cain wrote.
In another instance, Cain said: “Yes, I believe in the gold standard. We should have never gotten off the gold standard because when we got off the gold standard, that then allowed Congress to inflate our currency whenever they overspent. Now look at the mess that we have.”
The nomination comes amid heavy Trump criticism of Fed chair Jerome Powell. At the end of last year, Trump attacked the Fed’s high rates and reportedly spoke about possibly firing Powell.
“The only problem our economy has is the Fed,” Trump tweeted. “They don't have a feel for the Market, they don't understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch - he can't putt!”