Trump's agenda will make Treasury Secretary's job tough, says Evercore's Roger Altman

Roger Altman, former deputy Treasury secretary and founder of Evercore, joins CNBC's 'Squawk Box' to discuss president-elect Trump's Treasury Secretary search, what to expect from the Trump economy, and more.

[Rayjack-mo]

No more massive Deficit Spending from either political Party borrowing from the future to insure the wealth gap widens and the Rich get Richer.

[jaykraft]

That's quite an indictment of Powell. I can't say I've seen it. Up until September, it was fighting inflation by raising rates. No politics involved. In September a lot of worry on Sahm rule triggering, jobless claims and a backdrop of Inflation 90% down from it's high, fairly close to 2%. The Fed's mandate is inflation and unemployment, so they shifted from one driver to the other. History will probably say the Fed went early but I'm having a harder time teasing out politics from the Fed's course than Altman.

[headspaceandtiming]

Trumps biggest promise is change. It won’t be easy and it will probably be messy. Bottom line. We need the change. Our country’s future depends on it. Grow a back bone people. We will prevail and be better off in the end.

[harrychu]

Our current Treasury Secretary isn't fit to operate a motor vehicle yet they put her in charge of the US Economy. Anyone will be an improvement.

[deanfischer]

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[christophergraves]

I can't believe anyone with any knowledge of economics would say that the labor market has anything in the world to do with inflation. As Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz proved in their study of inflation in the U.S., the sole cause of inflation is excessive growth in the money supply. Wages tend to lag behind inflation. So, deporting immigrants who have no right to be in the U.S. would raise wages for American workers, increase their income and stimulate the economy. A tighter labor market would NOT have any effect on inflation at all. ZERO.  Globalization including mass immigration has gutted the middle class. People voted for Trump in order to protect American jobs and raise Americans' wages and improve their working conditions.

The same is so of tariffs. Tariffs would increase the prices of some goods but not all goods unless the FED increased the money supply. David Ricardo noted that free trade is not advisable if capital or labor or both are highly mobile for the reasons that we see today. Selective tariffs imposed on goods imported into the U.S. from nations that have no real comparative or absolute advantage but simply due to lower costs from cheap labor after outsourcing of American jobs to their nation would help stop this problem along with the controls on immigration. We should have free trade only with nations similarly situated as our own such as with Europe and Japan or with Third World nations with real absolute or comparative advantages in order to shut down outsourcing.

Yes, the economy will not grow as fast with higher wages and better working conditions, but more Americans will be made better off in their lives by these restrictions plus the influx of non-Europeans into America is destroying social trust and our distinctive culture.