Trump challenges party's monetary orthodoxy

IF you are trying to illustrate the extraordinary way that President Donald Trump has transformed the political direction of the Republican Party, you could consider the shift in foreign policy that has taken place under his leadership, from a commitment to internationalism to the embrace of nationalism as the GOP's guiding principle.

Or you could also discuss the major changes in US attitudes towards immigration, from a Republican Party that under President Ronald Reagan and the two President Bushes had extolled the notion of an America that welcomed immigrants into the country, to a GOP that has now adopted a more restrictionist (even nativist) agenda.

But probably the most dramatic transformation in the GOP that Trumpism has propelled has been in the area of monetary policy - a development that has gotten less public attention than foreign policy and immigration, perhaps because it is too technical and even boring.