Trump to Nominate Conservative Stephen Moore for Fed Board

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said on March 22 that he will nominate Stephen Moore, a conservative economic analyst, to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve’s seven-member board. Moore, a well-known figure in Washington political circles, served as an economic adviser to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. In that role, he helped draft Trump’s tax cut plan.

Trump has been harshly critical of the Fed’s rate increases last year. Moore, who has served as chief economist for the conservative Heritage Foundation, has also been critical of policy moves made by Chairman Jerome Powell, who was hand-picked by Trump to be Fed chairman. An ardent defender of tax cuts, Moore is close to Larry Kudlow, head of the White House National Economic Council. The two collaborated in shaping the tax overhaul that Trump signed into law at the end of 2017, leading to changes that largely favored tax cuts for corporations and wealthier Americans with the idea of spurring investment and faster growth.

Trump in his first two years in office has been able to reshape the central bank. He nominated four of the current five members. And he tapped Powell, a Republican who had been chosen for the Fed board by President Barack Obama, to succeed Janet Yellen as chairman. If confirmed by the Senate, Moore would fill one of two vacancies on the Fed’s board.

The selection of Moore marks a deviation from Trump’s previous selections for the Fed’s board to a highly visible public figure who has long pushed conservative economic ideology. In a March editorial in The Wall Street Journal, Moore estimated that Fed rate policies had reduced inflation-adjusted economic growth by as much as 1.5 percentage points in the past six months. Moore proposed that the Fed set short-term rates with an eye toward stabilizing commodity prices, rather than solely on overall inflation. This approach, Moore has argued, would have prevented the Fed from raising rates as much as it has. And he contended that the approach, if adopted, would help accelerate economic growth above 3 percent, compared with the longer-run average of 1.9 percent that Fed officials have forecast. Moore has frequently praised the administration on television, and he co-wrote the 2018 book “Trumponomics.” His partner on that book was Art Laffer, who pioneered the Republican doctrine that lower tax rates would accelerate economic growth in ways that could minimize debt.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-to-nominate-conservative-stephen-moore-for-fed-board_2849406.html

NOAA Issues ‘Moderate’ Geomagnetic Storm Watch Over the Weekend

New York and Chicago residents could see the Northern Lights, or the aurora borealis, over the weekend due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun, according to U.S. weather officials. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) posted a map on March 20, saying that a “G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for the 23 March, 2019 … due to anticipated CME arrival.”

The agency said that an “asymmetric halo CME was observed,” and it appears to be partially directed at the Earth. According to the map, the most likely area of an aurora event is between the green line and the yellow line, which appears to encompass parts of New York, northern Illinois (including Chicago), Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington state, Iowa, Michigan, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The very northern parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana might see the Northern Lights.

“An asymmetric halo CME was observed in SOHO/LASCO coronagraph imagery and initial analysis of the CME in both LASCO and STEREO-A coronagraph imagery shows an Earth-directed component is likely,” the NOAA added. The NOAA further explained: “The largest storms that result from these conditions are associated with solar coronal mass ejections where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, arrives at Earth. CMEs typically take several days to arrive at Earth, but have been observed, for some of the most intense storms, to arrive in as short as 18 hours.” According to CNET, the sun’s solar flare caused some disruptions for radio operators in Africa and Europe. It’s being followed by a CME, which is a massive cloud of charged particles emitted during a flare. NASA said there is a difference between a solar flare and CME.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/new-york-chicago-could-see-the-northern-lights-this-weekend-due-to-geomagnetic-storm_2849421.html

>>5829273

I actually wondered why he wasn't chosen earlier, but as they say timing is everything.

Ten Men Detained Near Frankfurt on Suspicion of Islamist Attack Plot

BERLIN—Ten men were detained in raids around Frankfurt on Friday, March 22, on suspicion of planning an Islamist attack using a vehicle and guns with the goal of killing as many people as possible, prosecutors said. Several of the suspects, aged 20 to 42, were German citizens, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said, without naming the other nationalities. “They are believed to have agreed to carry out an Islamist, terrorist attack using a vehicle and guns that would kill as many ‘non-believers’ as possible,” the statement from the Frankfurt prosecutors said. “To prepare the attack, they had already made contact with different arms dealers, rented a large vehicle and collected financial assets to use for the purchase of guns and the execution of the planned murders,” they added.

The main suspects were a 21-year old man from Offenbach, a city near Frankfurt, and two 31-year brothers from Wiesbaden, all of whom were associated with the Islamist Salafist community in the area, prosecutors said. Another man was also detained, prosecutors said, without giving further details. There was no immediate statement from any lawyers for the detained men. Authorities seized 20,000 euros in cash, several knives, small amounts of drugs and numerous documents and electronic devices, during raids carried out by 200 police forces and other law enforcement experts, the prosecutors said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/ten-men-detained-near-frankfurt-on-suspicion-of-islamist-attack-plot_2849357.html

>>5829456

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC), I wonder if this could also be a nod to look into this organization.