Trump's Big CON: It's All About the Show, Federal Reserve Chairman Edition

"President Trump delights in making spectacles out of personnel decisions. He conducted cabinet interviews at his New Jersey golf club, inviting members to gather and gawk. He summoned both finalists for a Supreme Court seat to the White House on the day of the announcement. And now he is conducting the most dramatic and drawn-out search for a Federal Reserve chairman in the long history of the stolid institution.

Mr. Trump is very publicly deliberating between two candidates with strikingly different views about the practice and purpose of monetary policy . .

The choice of a Fed chairman is always a high-stakes political decision, but Mr. Trump’s predecessors uniformly sought to minimize the attendant drama. Past presidents have rarely acknowledged the existence of multiple candidates and, since World War II, every chairman who completed a first term was nominated for a second term.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, announced in July that he was considering candidates to replace Ms. Yellen. . .

On Tuesday, he conducted an informal poll of Senate Republicans, asking them to raise a hand for [for one of two candidates]. Some refused."

Read The New York Times, Trump’s Latest Show: Choosing a Fed Chairman.