In a story posted Thursday morning, the Wall Street Journal reached out to all 45 living members, present and former, of the Council of Economic Advisors, from the presidencies from Richard Nixon through Barack Obama.
The results are reported in a piece titled Economists Who’ve Advised Presidents Are No Fans of Donald Trump and subtitled “In a WSJ survey, no former members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers—spanning eight presidents—openly support Mr. Trump.”
This of course corresponds with the analysis by Moody that Trump’s economic plan would add trillions to the debt and cost millions of jobs.
As the story notes:
Among 17 Republican appointees who responded to Journal inquiries, none said they supported Mr. Trump. Six said they did not support Mr. Trump and 11 declined to say either way. An additional six did not respond to repeated messages. Among the 20 Democrats who responded to the Journal, 13 said they supported Mrs. Clinton, none said they opposed her and seven declined to say either way. Two Democratic appointees didn’t respond to messages.
The story has gotten a lot of play on various cable news shows.
The link I have provided is not behind a pay wall.
There are quotes from some well-known economists, names most here would recognize.
Allow me to offer the material from one noted Republican economist, one whose textbook is probably the most widely used for Advanced Placement Economics courses in high schools around the country:
Harvard University economist Gregory Mankiw, who chaired the council under George W. Bush and has been mentioned as a possible future Fed chairman, said recently on his blog that he would not support Mr. Trump.
“I have Republican friends who think that things couldn’t be worse than doubling down on Obama policies under Hillary Clinton. And, like them, I am no fan of the left’s agenda of large government and high taxes,” Mr. Mankiw wrote. “But they are wrong: Things could be worse. And I fear they would be under Mr. Trump.”
Before the article provides a chart of all 45, identifying their President and party and how they responded, the article concludes with the following paragraph:
Some of the economists who declined to endorse a presidential candidate cited current jobs that require them to remain nonpartisan including Ms. Yellen, the Fed chairwoman who chaired the council in the late 1990s, and Kristin Forbes, who served on the council in the early 2000s and currently is a Bank of England policy maker.
In other words, the number who would endorse would probably be higher.
Thought it worth sharing.