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(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.

Seems more relevant now...



Herman Cain: We Need a Dollar as Good as Gold https://t.co/0miy2kgmo1 — Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) April 4, 2019

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!”

The only problem our economy has is the Fed. 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! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

This kind of criticism has continued on even after the Fed signaled a pause in the rate hikes for 2019.

Cain’s nomination would fill one of the two open seats on the Federal Reserve Board. The second spot will be going to Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and a Trump supporter.

Aside from the GOP presidential nomination campaign, Cain served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1992 to 1996.

Similar to Moore, Cain is also an outspoken Trump supporter. In September, he co-founded a pro-Trump super-political action committee — America Fighting Back PAC, which states on its homepage: “We must protect Donald Trump and his agenda from impeachment.”