If you’ve paid attention to conservative media over the past couple of decades, Moore has been a familiar figure, as a persistent if not especially heavyweight proponent of supply-side economics. Moore advised Cain on his infamous “9-9-9” tax plan during his 2012 presidential run, then advised Trump in 2016. He consulted on Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and co-wrote a book called Trumponomics.

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Moore was a peculiar pick for the Fed in part because his expertise, such as it is, is fiscal policy. Moore is ignorant of monetary policy, which is what the Fed oversees. That’s not my assessment—it’s Moore’s. When Trump announced his plan to nominate Moore, the would-be governor told Bloomberg that he didn’t know what the central bank or its board did.

“I’m kind of new to this game, frankly, so I’m going to be on a steep learning curve myself about how the Fed operates, how the Federal Reserve makes its decisions,” he said. “It’s hard for me to say even what my role will be there, assuming I get confirmed.”

His record backs this up. As the Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell has noted, Moore claimed that there was deflation when there wasn’t, and insisted that the nation was on the verge of hyperinflation when in fact there was deflation. Moore has supported the gold standard (though he insists that he hasn’t, despite video evidence). Matt O’Brien rounds up other problems with Moore’s economic positions. Moore also called on Trump to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which would have, at the very least, made for some awkward small talk at Moore’s first meeting.

Somewhat perversely, Moore’s views and comments on other topics are what finished his chances. His economic views are more relevant to the job he would have actually held, but whereas most people don’t have a sophisticated understanding of interest rates, most people either are or know a woman—and Moore has some peculiar views about women, both related and unrelated to the economy.

CNN’s KFile has been at the forefront of uncovering Moore’s past comments. Basketball has been a frequent trigger for these views. Referring to his wife in a 2001 column, Moore wrote, “When Allison and I got married the hoops ground rules were already well established: She’s not allowed to talk to me during the NCAA tournament.”

The next year, he recycled the idea: “Ah, March, the greatest month of the year. This is the season where I return to bachelorhood, lock myself into the TV room and tell my wife that I’ll see her sometime in April. Oh, and by the way, keep those three crying kids out of my hair for the next three weeks.”

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Moore complained about women refereeing games, with a reference to the notoriously violent and abusive Indiana University coach Bob Knight:

How outrageous is this? This year they allowed a woman ref a men’s NCAA game. Liberals celebrate this breakthrough as a triumph for gender equity. The NCAA has been touting this as example of how progressive they are. I see it as an obscenity. Is there no area in life where men can take vacation from women? What’s next? Women invited to bachelor parties? Women in combat? (Oh yeah, they’ve done that already.) Why can’t women ref the women’s games and men the men’s games.



I can’t wait to see the first lady ref have a run in with Bobby Knight.

He did offer one exception to his suggestion of banning women from sports, citing a prominent broadcaster:

Women are permitted to participate, if and only if, they look like Bonnie Bernstein. The fact that Bonnie knows nothing about basketball is entirely irrelevant … Bonnie Bernstein should wear a halter top.

In an email to CNN, Moore explained these columns by saying, “This was a spoof. I have a sense of humor.” To his credit, he didn’t say it was a good sense of humor.