But with Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell moving aggressively . . .
Here.
The passing scene is hilarious, until it careens through the front yard and crashes into my living room.
But with Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell moving aggressively . . .
Here.
Paul Volcker was Fed Chair from 1979 to 1987.
His peak average Fed Funds Rate was north of 16% in 1981.
The rate is now 1.52% vs. CPI up 8.5% year over year and the all commodities Producer Price Index up 21.5% year over year.
This isn't being tough.
It's a joke perpetrated on an ignorant public like all the other jokes of our time, like George Floyd, Caitlin Jenner, and Jan 6.
Currency in Circulation (CURRCIR) under Arthur F. Burns rose at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.64% from Feb 1970 to March 1978. The Consumer Price Index (CPIAUCSL) rose at a compound annual growth rate of 6.49%.
After four years of Jerome Powell, Feb 2018 to Feb 2022, Currency in Circulation rose at a similar 8.41% CAGR but the CPI only at 3.31% CAGR, almost 50% less than under Burns.
Milton Friedman famously said, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”
Something is rotten in CPI Denmark.
The insanity of easy money is liked most by the stock market, which is why Powell is going slow on his way to two percent after he completes the six more increases he's promising over the next year.
If he thinks the rate ought to be 2% to curb inflation, well then get on with it, boy, and show us what you've got! Nip it in the bud if it's that big a FD.
Truth is they've got nothing, and intend to do nothing about inflation.
Inflation this high needs a bigger gun than 2% one year down the road. That's not how it was done in the 1980s, and 2% even if done right now won't do a damn thing.
This is just inflation theatre, just like the TSA war on terror security theatre, the this government theatre, the that government theatre, and lately the vaccine theatre.
Meanwhile the first in line to all this easy money keep getting richer, and richer, and richer.
Gotta keep that going while appearing to DO SOMETHING!
What a crock.
The reputation of major US institutions is headed to hell in a handbasket.
“To think that such trading is acceptable because it is supposedly allowed by Fed’s current policies only highlights that the Fed’s policies are woefully deficient,” Kelleher told CNBC.