Donald J. Reagan Fitzgerald Kudlow

Congratulations are in order for President Trump and Lawrence Kudlow. The White House confirmed this afternoon that our columnist — it’s the least of his laurels — has been tapped to become the new head of the National Economic Council. It’s a brilliant choice, not least because it will help the administration knit together the best of both the Republican and Democratic Party traditions in our political policy-making. Which is why we sometimes call the economist Donald J. Reagan Fitzgerald Kudlow.We first met Mr. Kudlow in 1981, when he was crammed into a warren of the Old Executive Office Building at Reagan’s White House. We’d just signed up to write editorials for the Wall Street Journal, when its editor, Robert Bartley, discovered that we — fresh from covering Asia — didn’t know the meaning of “supply-side economics.” So he told us to go to Washington and look up the aforementioned Mr. Kudlow. There were a lot of skilled explainers in those days, but few of Mr. Kudlow’s clarity of mind and generosity of spirit.Which came, no doubt, from his open-mindedness and from which, we like to think, sprang his abilities at synthesis. No doubt the left is going to start finding guild economists to complain that Mr. Kudlow lacks a PhD and academical training. Washington, though, is crawling with formal economists. What’s remarkable about Mr. Kudlow is that even without the PhD, he emerged as one of his generation’s most influential economic policy sages, managing to maintain his sway for close to half a century.We began running Mr. Kudlow’s columns in the Sun back when it had a print edition. Mr. Trump’s early public acknowledgement that he was taking economic advice from Mr. Kudlow caught our attention. It was one of the things that made us think not only of the problems a Trump presidency might present but also the possibilities. Then Mr. Kudlow brought out his book “JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity,” which reminds that pro-growth tax cutting at the top margin is a bipartisan tradition.It speaks well of Mr. Kudlow that he has refused to trim his free-trade sails to the winds of populist protectionism. It speaks well of Mr. Trump that in the middle of his maneuvering on trade he would bring in an economist with Mr. Kudlow’s views. Best of all about this development is the fact that Mr. Kudlow gets not only the fiscal side of the policy challenges but the monetary side as well. The failure to appreciate this was, in our view, the signal error of the previous head of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn.“King Dollar” is the phrase that Mr. Kudlow uses to evoke our national currency as the lynchpin of the world economic system. As it was after World War II, when, under Bretton Woods, America was obligated to redeem dollars by foreign governments at a 35th of an ounce of gold. Mr. Trump was one of the Republican candidates to stand on a platform of monetary reform. It’s nice to see him choose, in Mr. Kudlow, an economic policy chairman who understands that monetary reform is one of the ways to help make America great again.

Donald J. Reagan Fitzgerald Kudlow

Donald J. Reagan Fitzgerald Kudlow

More from the New York Sun

Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn Re-emerges From ‘Slow-Motion Car Crash’ With Docuflick Revisiting Olympic Breakdance Firestorm

The Neglected Case for Washington Irving’s Storytelling Imagination

‘Megxit’ Accomplished: Harry and Meghan Back in Britain, Bringing Chaos That Could Threaten the Crown

Iowa’s Attorney General Threatens To Sue California Over Its Effort To Block Paramount’s Merger With Warner Bros. Discovery

Death at Frankfurt Highlights Growing Risk of ‘Airport Malaria’

PGA Tour Unveils Radical Two-Week Match-Play Finale in Landmark Overhaul for 2028

Dolly Parton’s Artistry Transcends Her Legend

DOJ Says Kennedy Center May Be Demolished If Trump’s Name Not Added to the Building

More from the New York Sun

Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn Re-emerges From ‘Slow-Motion Car Crash’ With Docuflick Revisiting Olympic Breakdance Firestorm

The Neglected Case for Washington Irving’s Storytelling Imagination

‘Megxit’ Accomplished: Harry and Meghan Back in Britain, Bringing Chaos That Could Threaten the Crown

Iowa’s Attorney General Threatens To Sue California Over Its Effort To Block Paramount’s Merger With Warner Bros. Discovery

Death at Frankfurt Highlights Growing Risk of ‘Airport Malaria’

PGA Tour Unveils Radical Two-Week Match-Play Finale in Landmark Overhaul for 2028

Dolly Parton’s Artistry Transcends Her Legend

DOJ Says Kennedy Center May Be Demolished If Trump’s Name Not Added to the Building