Mitt Romney Rejects Greg Mankiw's Views On The Federal Reserve

Romney Rejects The Views Of His Own Adviser
FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speak in Springfield, Va. Eventually, the economic recovery will improve _ whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is in the White House. That's what many economic outlooks project. History is on their side. And the president - and the party - occupying the Oval Office in 2016 will reap the benefits. But first, Obama or Romney, together with Congress, will have to pull back from the universally unacceptable, politically created fiscal abyss facing the nation at years end. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speak in Springfield, Va. Eventually, the economic recovery will improve _ whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is in the White House. That's what many economic outlooks project. History is on their side. And the president - and the party - occupying the Oval Office in 2016 will reap the benefits. But first, Obama or Romney, together with Congress, will have to pull back from the universally unacceptable, politically created fiscal abyss facing the nation at years end. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is rejecting some of the views of one of his own advisers, who also happens to be a renowned conservative economist.

Romney, who has said he would not reappoint Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke if elected president, has repeatedly claimed that the Federal Reserve's recent stimulus measures have debased the U.S. dollar without creating jobs. Not only have these views been challenged, but they also are in direct opposition to those of his adviser Greg Mankiw, a Harvard economics professor whose textbook "Principles of Economics" is a staple in college classrooms, Bloomberg reports.

To boost the sluggish economy, the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates low and embarked on three rounds of a type of monetary stimulus known as quantitative easing.

Mankiw has written that the Fed has largely has done the best it could to combat unemployment and keep inflation low, and that the Federal Reserve's second quantitative easing measures were "a modestly good idea." He even wrote in 2009 that the Fed should allow moderately higher inflation in order to bring down the unemployment rate, though he walked back on those views last year. Mankiw declined a request for comment from The Huffington Post.

In contrast, Romney said last year that Bernanke "has overinflated the amount of currency that he's created" and that the Federal Reserve's second round of quantitative easing "did not get Americans back to work."

But there's evidence to refute these claims. Inflation still is at historic lows, and the Federal Reserve estimates that its quantitative easing measures have saved or created more than 2 million private-sector jobs.

This is not the first time that Romney has ignored recommendations from economic experts he hired to help. Romney's housing plan doesn't include the proposals of his top economic adviser, Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School, who has endorsed the mass refinancing of underwater mortgages. Romney's latest housing plan did not endorse mortgage refinancing and included few details in general.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot