Judy Lynn Shelton, the former economic advisor to former President Donald Trump, who is known for her advocacy for a return to the gold standard and her criticisms of the Federal Reserve, was recently questioned about her Wall Street Journal article “No, Inflation Isn’t Good for Workers.”
In the article, she stated that near-zero interest rates are being heralded as the path to increased wages, although consumer prices are rising at the highest rate since 2008. However, nominal pay increases are an illusion when actual wage gains are wiped out by inflation. The financial benefits of the Fed’s accommodative policy largely benefit Wall Street over Main Street.
As it turns out, low- and middle-income Americans understand they are worse off when ‘pay increases’ do not keep up with the cost of living. Workers are particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in the prices of fuel, food, healthcare, and housing. People also believe that income inequality, both among households and regionally, is a significant concern. These strong views are recorded in “Fed Listens,” a 129-page report released by the Federal Reserve in June 2020.
During a recent interview with Squawk box, Judy was asked whether she considers herself a hawk and does that make her question whether the fed could be behind the curve, she smartly said that,
I don’t consider myself a hawk or a dove. I’m more a woodpecker. I keep hammering away at this idea that money is meant to be an accurate measure. It’s supposed to convey price signals and “My concern about the Fed’s actions is that it’s muddling that message
She further adds that the fed intends to keep buying 80 billion in government treasuries, 40 billion in securities and how it supports the economy is I think it’s difficult for them to justify anything.
After viewing Judy Shelton’s interview, Anthony Pompliano, an entrepreneur and investor with a portfolio worth more than $500 million in early-stage digital businesses, tweeted in favor of Bitcoin, stating,
While legacy players are trying to figure out if they are hawks, doves, woodpeckers, or any other animal, Bitcoin continues to produce block after block with a fully transparent, programmatic monetary policy. Our children will laugh at how archaic human-led monetary policy was.
Judy Shelton made the argument for restoring the United States to a gold standard currency in a policy paper published in 2018. However, she also pushed adopting cryptocurrencies in the article. She thought that a modern version of this strategy, one that allows the production of virtual currencies alongside government-issued currencies, as well as the adaptation of legal tender rules, to allow for healthy currency competition, should be put forth.
Related: Congressman says helicopter money is killing the U.S dollar, CBDC can be the solution
Shelton sees a free market of competing currencies, including private digital currencies. She is likewise pessimistic about the dollar’s ability to compete with cryptocurrencies.
In 2020, Judy Shelton told lawmakers that digitizing the U.S. dollar could help maintain the currency’s ascendancy in global commerce. At her Senate confirmation hearing, Shelton also said the U.S. needs fintech innovation to keep ahead of other countries.
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