July CPI
US CPI rose 0.2% in July from June and 2.7% over last July. This is well over the Fed’s target, which itself is well over price stability, on top of actual inflation being well over the CPI.
Three degrees of over, yet the Fed wants to ease in September. The President wants more inflation. Wall Street wants more inflation, and Silicon Valley wants more inflation. The average American can expect more fleecing.
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I heard an interesting take on fiscal dominance from lyn alden. When debt levels are low and money creation is via bank loans, raising interest rates will slow the economy. When debt is high and money creation is fiscal, higher rates produce more income for bond holders, and stimulate the economy. Lowering rates would reduce flows to creditors and lower the deficit. At least that’s the theory
Yes the relationship between interest rates and inflation is not as simple as it’s cracked up to be. Far as deficits go, it’s not rocket science, If you owe $40T and your average interest rate is 4%, your annual interest cost is $1.6T. If your interest rate is 2%, it’s $0.8T.
The trouble is that like everybody else politicians look at the interest cost when they make spending decisions, and the lower the rates, the more they borrow. It’s no accident that we have a federal debt crisis after over a decade of ultralow rate policy. Trying to cure excessive debt with lower interest rates would be like trying to cure an alcoholic with cheaper booze.
These are unusual and confusing times. Falling interest rates will move us back towards ZIRP. The rising prices you mention make real interest rates even lower and we get back towards NIRP.
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. ZIRP and NIRP are intended to accelerate lending, and today most money is lent into existence. That seems to imply that interest rates falling towards ZIRP is inflationary. More lending is more money printing.
Tariffs are not fundamentally inflationary – one tax is the same as any other, so tariffs are the same as sales taxes which are no different than income taxes. But the recent budget bill offers no income tax reductions, it just freezes rates that were previously set to rise later. So the US next year will pay all the same income taxes as last year, but will also pay the new tariff import taxes added on top. The ancient principles of price elasticity and supply demand curves would predict that when people and businesses have less money in their pocket next year, and the prices of things are higher next year, we will purchase less of everything next year.
So the outlook is for a wave of printed money while we impose higher taxes.. Along with the direct effects we should also expect the secondary effects of these things. Mal-investment from loose lending. Shifts away from the productive activities of growing and making things we can use and instead shifts towards the non-productive finance activities of arbitrage and rent-seeking toll booths.
You and I have discussed these things for nearly 20 years now (thanks!) and I’m keenly interested in more of your views here. The inflationary forces of falling interest rates together with increasing federal deficits seems to be on a collision course with the deflationary forces of rising prices and a slowing economy. The word “stagflation” jumps to mind.
In the physical world, when two opposing forces continue to grow in opposition, the system becomes unstable and eventually a sudden catastrophic disaster occurs. Of course, that’s an analogy that does not really apply here, because economics is not mechanics. Duh. But still, I honestly can’t untangle these things to see how this settles into a new equilibrium and I can’t see what that equilibrium might look like.
Where do you think we are going and what will it look like when we get there? Thanks.
Good take, thrifty. In the big picture, every unit of purchasing power the government spends is taken from someone else. If it doesn’t take it in direct taxes, it must either borrow or print the difference. And if it borrows it and never repays it, it prints it. Net-net, it assesses a straightforward visible tax or hides behind the curtain in the dark taking it through inflation. The media often speak as if federal funds were manna from heaven, but every bit of it comes from somewhere.
So the bottom line is dollar depreciation – inflation – as far as the eye can see.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be spasms of deflation … debt represents demand for dollars, which increases their value. And if people expect dollar depreciation, they short dollars – borrow money – which can only work as long as everybody’s not doing it. Otherwise everybody could just quit their jobs, borrow dollars, and get rich. So that can’t work. This requires an occasional deflation to prevent. You get a short squeeze as everyone tries to cover their shorts, as in 2008. But such deflations prompt an aggressive inflationary policy response. So the bigger picture remains inflation.
Where does this take us? Federal debt has passed into a self-reinforcing spiral where the government is borrowing just to pay the interest on already accumulated debt. What course it takes requires some speculation, but based on observable behavioral tendencies, I expect that as the free market increasingly balks at buying it, it will take increasingly high interest rates to finance. But that itself exacerbates the problem, so the Fed will step in and buy increasingly large amounts of debt (a la QE) across the range of treasury maturities in order to suppress rates and yields. But this means even more inflation, so something’s gotta give.
Then all the federal austerity that has been postponed for so long will finally become inevitable. If the system is to even survive in some semblance of its current form, at least. The only other alternative is the American Empire goes the way of the Roman Empire and every other since.
Without a change in policies, a debt crisis will lead to a dollar crisis. How or when is far from clear, but Ernest Hemingway may have given us a preview in The Sun Also Rises … first gradually, then suddenly.
US PPI rose 0.9% in July from June and 3.3% from a year ago July. The bond market hiked rates.
Well gents tomorrow is the day.
Mean while in blighty growth has fallen to 0.3% (Half from what it was when Labour took over).
Delightfully the options polls are out & it seems the Labour party are 3rd place, indeed if there was an election tomorrow ALL the cabinet would lose their seats!
Just over 1 year into a 4 year max term means that this rubbish has 3 years max & i think its much less than that! Talk round the political camp fire is the PM & number 11 will get sacked by Xmas………then who ever leads the Labour party will call a GE.
Trouble is the Labour party has split & a 2nd hard left Labour party will run, thus splitting their already piss poor vote. Labour are already seeing that they were allowed to win in order to carry the can & call in the IMF.
As for are beloved PM he is almost 100% focus on Ukraine……that is not going well
What happens tomorrow?
So far the Russia foreign minster has arrived wearing a Sweat shirt that sez “CCCP”.
i was thinking about what trump has done, not what he said.
Stablised the Carcuses
Got this meeting FAR away from ANY false flag interference.
Shipped the nation guard into DC
Mike
Nah
Trump flying B2 bombers about…….he looking to bully Putin……..
Yep
As Lyndon Johnson said “If only i could get Ho Chi Min into a room i would bribe/bully the SOB until i got a deal.”
He tried, but Putin is NOT going to do “Minsk 3″…….he beaten NATO & now its time to keep going………….
Mike
investing amid fiscal dominance
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kybrEqjyDw
The British fold…………
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/16/trumps-astonishing-gamble-may-pay-off-spectacularly/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2025/08/16/putin-has-cemented-russias-status-as-a-great-power/
Putin?
Not bad for a man dying of cancer or whatever
Monday is going to look like something out of “Dr Strangelove”
I see why Trump moved the NG into DC………..the euro nazis will hire a mob to kick off when they get the bad news
We go live @ 5
5pm GMT the fun begins…….Europe get given its surrender terms Ho Ho Ho
European leaders and EU chief to hold ‘preparatory meeting’ with Zelenskyy
The EU Commission has confirmed that Ursula von der Leyen and European leaders will hold a “preparatory meeting” with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before he meets Donald Trump today.
Ukraine’s president will then head into his Oval Office meeting with Trump, before the European leaders join discussions later.
Just chilling here in Liverpool…………cant wait……..i think trump has picked a winner & europe is not it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sir Keir Starmer is at odds with Donald Trump over Ukraine’s Nato ambitions ahead of a crucial White House summit today.
The US president on Sunday night said that Volodymyr Zelensky is standing in the way of a truce, claiming he could end the war “almost immediately” if the Ukrainian leader abandons his plans to join the alliance.
But this morning, the Prime Minister’s office pushed back, saying Kyiv is on an “irreversible path” to Nato membership.
Sir Keir’s official spokesman added: “Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to the EU or Nato.”
The disagreement sets up another potential White House showdown later today when Sir Keir will join Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz for the talks with Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky.
European leaders are hoping to establish a ceasefire in Ukraine, but Mr Trump has said he would prefer to agree a more permanent resolution to the conflict.
The 10 year is rocketting!!!!!!
What we are about to witness tonight is up there with the start of WW2/dropping of the bomb
THIS IS GOING TO BE A THING OF BEAUTY!
OK, as i understand it:-
Trump kicked the Euro Nazi scum out of the room.
Phoned Putin
Chatted for 40 mins
Agreed that Putin, the Green Goblin & him will meet SOON to sign the Deal.
The Euro trash tried to get in on the deal & demanded a 4 way meeting….& got told to piss off.
As EJ used to say, “lets see”
O……………K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Kr8JhMaVs
So “Miss Italy” is demanding a “Trip wire” agreement that means at some later date the Euro Nazi can launch a false flag attack & bounce the US into a war with Russia…for them.
Mike
Mega’s dispatch from England:- Lets talk about England
Thought i leave any more discuss on World affairs & switch back to dear old blighty. Its been quite a while & that NWO/Old Marxist scumbag government is not resting. To recap the Labour won a election just over a year ago.
The Tory party was hammered by its total failure to deal with mass immigration, but legal & illegal. A new centre right party ran & it split the Tory vote thus allowing a truly shockingly rudderless government into power.
They lead by a man called Starmer. He is an unrepentant Cold war Marxist whom i joke you not as a young man travelled to Eastern Europe pre fall of the USSR & went to a young marxist training camp in what is now the Check republic.
His government are largely made up of middage lefty ex Uni types whom have never had a REAL job. Thus their real life experience is very limited, add to this the nations failing economy & crippling debts.
Upon arriving in power the government poured as much cold water on the economy as possible. While its far from their fault that this debt level had been blown up by so many other government’s going back to the late 90s.
However the economy was like a jet plane right on the edge of stall speed, almost zero growth. They then had the bright idea of massive tax rises because they need extra income. You & just about anyone with more than 2 brain cells know what that would do to the economy, but not these useless fks.
Mega’s dispatch from England:-Financial repression to REAL repression!
Now with the insane push for “Green” energy & the Ukraine war cutting off Russian oil/Gas & the decline of Britain’s North sea Oil/Gas England is “Blessed” with the highest energy costs on the planet.
Every Week we hear of yet another Oil refinery or Chemical processing plant heading for closure. Indeed the head of the chemical producers trade association warned that they simply cant produce with these costs, the industry would fail in this nation!
Not that any of this is having any effect on the government. Number 11 the woman running the finance of the nation is totally out of her depth. She used to work at a bank that went bust in 2008 & at the Bank of England. While trying to talk up her career it turned out she held a very lowly post.
However this female now spends her time dreaming up new taxes, like every day!……i joke you not. Each one is a kite flying exercise to see what the public think? Last month she was forced to borrow £20 billion on which £16 billion was just to pay interest on debt !
I am informed that they are now actively looking at how they can raid savings/pension accounts not just to tax them but also force them to be “Invested” in their new Green projects………….that no bank or pension fund would ever dream of investing in!
Taking Financial repression to a new level.
This is all bad but what i have to tell you is much worse…….REAL Repression is starting.
Mega’s dispatch from England:- There will be Blood
A few weeks ago this government passed the “On line safety bill”. This is to protect young children from seeing sex on the internet. Considering that you average 7 year old can leave Bill Gates in the dust ref IT skills i have little doubt that it will prove unless…………..but that is not what its about.
Only this week it was reported that 4chan got an grubby little email form our government demanding £20,000 & £10,000 a day for not following their “guidelines” on censoring public discussion. I am delighted to report the 4chan did a “Boston tea party” on them right there & then. 4Chan pointed out that they are an American company operating in America & they had no holdings or assets in the UK.
They didn’t just tell them to pound sand either, they invited the very highest levels of US government to involve themselves in this process………..& he did.
Yesterday J D Vance had a chat with our prime minster.
He informed that Apple will NOT be providing him a back door access to users data & he discussed 4chan as well. We await to see what will happen but for the time being J D has our backs.
Its quite clear we are heading for Revolution, the powers to bw want Civil war but i don’t think they get it. Crime is shy rocketting from all the “New arrives” Things have not been this bad since the 1970s.
Mega’s dispatch from England:-Surprise little victory
Admits all this gloom i do bring you a tale of hope. A small village in a place called Epping Forrest was “Blessed” with an influx of “Boat people” who washed up on our shores.
They were only to happy to thank the local residents for putting them up in a very nice lux hotel in each walking distance of a local school by “Culturally enriching” a 14 year old girl on her way home. Yes the police got the guys in question, but as you might suspect the local population were somewhat nonplussed by this.
The locals held protests outside the hotel & a strange thing happened…..a large number of left wing counter demo types turned up. What was more “Strange” to police guarding the hotel escorted the bussed in paid protesters to the front of the hotel & allowed them to taught the local population. Most of this lot wore masks & the police made not attempt to make them remove them.
This was shown & even the BBC asked questions………….the bussed in rent a mob suddenly disappeared. Today we had some great news, the local council lead by a man with some balls & skill got a court injunction forcing the boat people removal from the hotel.
The government tried to appeal it but it was not allowed, mainly due to the government’s lack of legal aruments………..it came down to “We don’t know where else to stick them”
Now EVERY Council in the land is looking at using this case to clear out all the hotels…
Meantime we see the 30 year gilt is at its highest since 1997 & the 10 year is climbing as well…..
Mega buys (YET!) another steel mill
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/21/labour-takes-control-of-key-british-steel-factory/
Hmmm……………….yes run out of North sea Gas, don’t drill for anymore ….then go to war with your only CHEAP source………….
What goin’ on over there?
The Last Global Neoliberal Institutional Pillar Could Soon Crumble
“Does anybody anywhere know how the current confluence of inflationary and deflationary forces will play out? In the UK, for example, where the BoE are already cutting rates, headline inflation is 3.8% y-o-y, nearly double target. There are real signs of economic weakness, but also real inflation in pocket and lingering on in services.”
Under extreme pressure the BOE cut by 0.25% & will NOT be cutting again.
3.8% … kinda makes me wonder if inflation is that much higher there or the reporting just more honest -;)
So we’re at 2.7% (supposedly), and both our central banks are easing … buckle up!
I cant see how Trump can do a “Nixon shock”.
No one expected it 1st time around.
Russia was CCCP, China a paddy field, the 3rd World was the 3rd World………..
Now EVERYONE is up to speed, the 3rd World is about to become the 1st
Mike
Anyways, just checked the Gold/Silver price & not much happening………WTF!!!
Just checked my portfolio and was alarmed by the melt up. Every single thing was up. Bonds, commodities, stocks … foreign and domestic. If it was measured in dollars it got bigger. Which of course in Finsternomics means the measuring unit got smaller. Apparently Powell said something dovish at Jackson Hole, sending Federal Reserve Notes into a tailspin and inflationary shock waves through markets … buckle up!
Mega’s Weekend Dispatch:- (Half) Baked Alaska
Well almost a week since Putin/Trump meeting……..wots happening?
I would call it the something for everyone meeting…….everyone was able to claim that Trump was on side with them………….only he is not. I was surprised by John Bolton raid, i think ALL the British agents will now be taken down………….i hear John Brenan is looking for an Irish passport!
Trump is sitting off for awhile taking the chance to SMASH all those domestic enemy targets.
In the meantime those limey loons are not giving up.
The Ukraine is about to fire long range missiles into Russia. Lacking anything from the NATO (US) stockpiles they “Built” there own. I seen photos, it looks like the old German V1, but bigger. I dont think its powered by a pulse jet engine rather a small gas turbine, it is said to have a rather large warhead of a ton & 3000 km range…………….but a very low speed.
Its not Ukraine, its British, built about 70 miles from where i live.
This means it can penetrate deep into Russia, but what i suspect many have not seen is it can also fly in the other direction, it has the range to hit London. Now am not saying this will happen but seeing how the Ukraine Nazi types are only too happy to sell on weapons i would not be shocked if some of these start flying towards Berlin or Paris…….that should help european unity;)
Indeed our Prime Minister has all be disappeared. He has a massive boat people problem. The Hotels they being put up in are now surrounded by protesters & the local government have won the right to throw them out as the hotels did not get planning permission to house them.
The government is trying to find some sort legal argument to allow them to say, but they might need an act of Parliament to change the law………….which is not going to happen quickly if at all.
Then there is the economy………..not good.
When Labour came into power they claimed to have found a £20 billion black hole…………this has now gone to £50 billion. The tax rises have driven away investment & people are shipping out (with there loot) & the economy has stalled. Lacking anything much in the way of skilled workforces (they stopped training in the 1980’s) Limited factory output.
So what is fiscal dominance and why should we be worried about it? Essentially, it’s the point at which the primary objective of monetary policy – that of controlling inflation – starts to take second place to the presiding government’s financing needs.
High debt in combination with high interest rates are making these pressures particularly acute.
In calling for much lower interest rates, Mr Trump has tended to highlight the pain tight money is inflicting on consumers and the housing market, but there is also an ulterior motive – reducing the federal government’s debt servicing costs. These are forecast to swell to a jaw-dropping total of more than $1 trillion (£739bn) this financial year, or some 17pc of all federal spending.
In the UK, the numbers are not yet quite so extreme – but they are alarming enough, with debt servicing costs forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility to rise to £131.6bn in five years’ time, or approaching 10pc of all public spending. Other forms of spending are being progressively crowded out.
There have been no calls that I am aware of from UK Government ministers for the Bank of England to cut rates so as to help ease these pressures, much as they might privately wish it.
But loss of faith in the Bank’s ability to curb inflation is already obvious in rising bond yields, particularly longer dated maturities.
The so-called yield curve – the difference between short and long term rates of interest – has been climbing steeply for much of the last year.
Particularly extreme is the rise in 30-year gilt yields, which at the time of writing had reached an astonishing 5.6pc. That’s a level not seen since the late 1990s and some 4.5 percentage points higher than it was in the depths of the pandemic five years ago.
Fiscal dominance is a bad word at Financology. It’s one of those bland euphemisms favored by establishment economists to make big government, reckless spending, and endless inflation sound antiseptic and benign.
What’s more, it pretends monetary policy plays no role in fiscal policy getting out of hand in the first place, when we know that E-Z credit is a major enabler of reckless borrowing. There is no bright line between monetary and fiscal policy.
I agree………….
Bloody French, they beat us to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/26/france-may-need-imf-bailout-says-economy-minister/
Who’s going to bail out the IMF?
mega has a question?
Given that we are roughly where we were in the early 70’s………..Nixon went off the Gold standard………………..so what can the collective west do this time around?
End the Fed.
Next best prohibit it from targeting interest rates. Let it conduct monetary policy solely by buying and selling Treasuries and gold. Prohibit it from holding any assets except Treasuries and gold. Prohibit it from talking about what it plans to do. Require it to target zero inflation.
If nominal per capita ΔGDP fails to remain within 0%-3% over any one year period, the board is automatically dismissed and replaced.
Oh, heck … just end it.
Bessent channeling Finster?
“Sept 5 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday called for renewed scrutiny of the Federal Reserve, including its power to set interest rates…”
Treasury Secretary Bessent calls for “entire” review of Fed
I see Silver & Copper on the critical lists………..hmmmmm
I hesitate to even mention this issue because it’s politics, not finance or economics, and it’s not even interesting politics, but the firing of Fed Governor Cook could have broader consequences.
Trump’s talk of firing Powell was little more than an ugly spectacle, because such a firing has to be “for cause”, and mere policy differences aren’t cause. Cook’s resistance to being fired is an ugly spectacle for the opposite reason; the firing is for cause. Establishment media make this out to be all about the independence of the Fed, as if the Fed were entitled to do anything it wants without any checks and balances. Absolute power is not the American way for any institution.
Just in the past five years, as ZeroHedge points out, three Fed officials have resigned on allegations of misconduct. One can only speculate as to why this one should be different.
Cook’s firing is not a criminal penalty and there is no presumption of innocence. The statutory language of “for cause” clearly excludes mere policy differences, but otherwise purposely gives the President broad discretion. Cause has been stated. It’s likely the administration would succeed should this be litigated as far as the Supreme Court and all that Cook’s resistance accomplishes is to cast an ethical pall over the Federal Reserve.
Mega’s dispatch from England:- Discretion is the better part of valour
The storm clouds are gaining fast here in Blighty. Trumps tarfits, the lack of any success in Ukraine & the economy which has totally run out of stream. The big question in the UK press is whom will be 1st to the IMF for a bale out, France or UK?
Many say its 1976 all over again……….its not, its vastly worse!
In 1976 Britain still had an sizeable industrial base, better still North sea Oil/Gas was due to flow very soon………..much to be cheerful for. Even so the PM at the time James Calliham delayed his re-ection till much later than expected.
For years after people could not understand why he delayed?……….then some years after his death the truth was told via his daughter. He delayed to lose the election!
He knew that the Labour party split apart if he tried to put in place the MEGA structural changes that had to be made. He knew it would be the end of the Labour party if they won…so “Jim” fell on his sword for his party.
History rimes sez Mark Twain & he is right.
The problems are far worse now & MEGA structural changes are required once again. The nation has grown fat on borrowed cash & there is no way to service the debts. Taxes are at their most since WW2 & more to come………..a new radical left with in the Labour party is forming fast, a new group of MP’s with no real world experience of how money works & the fact that excessive tax=collapse economy.
Bond/Guilt prices are starting to reflect the troubling picture……….rates are going to rise..
Thus talk round the campfire is the Labour party wants to hand the keys back!……..ASAP.
May you live in interesting times……….
Hmmmm…………Gold catching a bid & Silver knocking on $40 baby!
Still the same amount of them on earth as there was a billion years ago. There are only about hundred things like that, and none of them are currencies, bonds, stocks, or digital data.
I wonder where going?……………$4,000?…………… $6,000?
As USD->0, AU->♾️.
OK almost $41 😉
Istanbul Museum of Modern Art tour Loved the historical stories behind every site. https://www.dewanconsultants.com/?p=7323
Got Popcorn?
£ falling (1.3% down today!)
10 year @ 4.85 & climbing FAST
There are too many moving parts to chalk it up to any one thing, but we have messed up policy on both the monetary and fiscal fronts.
We’ve already addressed the Fed. Friday’s Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) tariff ruling may be more significant than the media give it credit for. It basically said the legislative, not the executive, has the authority to set broad tariffs. The Trump admin has said it will appeal to the Supreme Court, but there’s a good chance the Supremes will back up the CAFC. The CAFC is not noted for partisan activism and that would be a positive affirmation of constitutional allocation of powers.
I’m a supporter of tariffs in principle, but Trump has abused them and taking away his favorite toys is what any good parent would do. Unfortunately the court decision targets only the broadest tariffs, leaving sectoral tariffs and economic micromanagement in place. We know what works. Simple, broad, stable government policy regulates the playing field, while the free market calls the plays.
“…We know what works. Simple, broad, stable government policy regulates the playing field, while the free market calls the plays…”
That is excellent thinking. Your two most important words are “stable” and “regulate”.
Gold is hitting new all time highs at $3539.67 spot. Our other favorite metals, copper, silver, platinum, have been doing well too, with commodities as a whole registering inflation that has been skillfully massaged out of government statistics. Gold shines brightest, however, alone at a new all time high, in keeping with its tradition of being least correlated with stocks, an example of why I favor gold in a portfolio otherwise dominated by stocks.
But gold is bucking tradition in also defying Treasuries, which are like stocks down today. This is not good news economically, as it implies markets are increasingly skeptical of Treasuries, traditionally gold’s flight-to-safety kin. In short, I suspect markets are sniffing out a scenario in which the economy weakens, stocks crater, and the Fed responds with another blitz of easy money, no less at a time when years of fiscal incontinence have left US government finance looking like a third world mess.
I herd that India dumped a load of “T” bills & bought Gold/Silver.
Imagine more than a few Americans might be doing something like that …
Mega disappointment:- Audi EV concept
Its far too wide (unless the fig includes door mirrors)…..but its so BLAND. No effect put it & its got a Hitter mustache as a grill!
https://www.motor1.com/news/770865/audi-concept-c-sports-car-concept-debut-production/
Remember the old Pontiac ads? … “Wider is better!”;-)
…..
At least they’re not committing brand suicide like
https://www.motor1.com/news/766281/new-jaguar-all-about-exuberance/
Establishment media are still pushing the canard about “Fed independence” to justify their bias against Trump and for Cook. This is nothing more than a continuation of the war they’ve waged against Trump since 2016. It sure isn’t about Fed independence … the Fed has never been independent since its conception by a group of political and financial elite on Jekyll Island. In all the coverage of the Cook fiasco since it broke, any search for evidence of the Fed’s alleged independence will turn up empty handed. Apparently the only independence the establishment media want you to think about is of President Trump. Independence from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Davos, and other centers of the global political and financial elite isn’t even on the radar screen.
No, this isn’t about defending a lack of control over the Fed, but a competition over who controls the Fed. Its real masters want it to be free from formal checks and balances, an imperial agency that answers to no one but themselves.
This isn’t even remotely a defense of Trump’s economic policies in general or his views on interest rates in particular. The record here makes clear that I couldn’t disagree more with Trump’s views on interest rates. They should be set by no one except lenders and borrowers interacting in a free market.
It is an indictment of the bogus reporting in the media, its congenital bias against any and all things Trump, and its defense of what appears to be overt financial fraud on the part of a Fed official, especially given that other officials have resigned for less. If Cook and her supporters had the best interests of the Fed in mind, she would be out immediately. The only good outcome from here is that the Supreme Court ultimately upholds the firing “for cause”, which has been given. It does not need to meet the same presumption of innocence standards as a criminal prosecution; otherwise it’s tantamount to appointment without recourse and without accountability.
But maybe that’s the idea.
I noticed that the Fake News Media portrays Trump as an unusually bad president when it comes to meddling in Federal Reserve matters and glosses over the fact that Lyndon Johnson physically roughed up William McChesney Martin (IMO, a pretty good Federal Reserve chairman) to convince Martin to lower interest rates. I am wholly unimpressed with Powell and before him Yellen, Bernanke, and Greenspan, chairmen who probably deserved to get roughed up.
As for Cook, even ignoring the mortgage fraud, she appears to be an utter incompetent based on her writings. I suspect that if her dismissal is upheld that Trump will appoint someone who at least has the appearance of being competent. However, the replacement will be another idiot in the vein of Ben Bernanke: all the amazing credentials in the world but stupider than a bag of rocks when it comes to economics in the real world.
How’s that “wealth effect” going, Ben? Do you still think it’s good central bank policy? What would happen if someone forced the Federal Reserve to liquidate all non-Treasury debt assets such as all the mortgage-backed securities, all the garbage in Maiden Lane and other special financial vehicles, and even all the gold bullion?
They also gloss over the fact that Trump appointed Powell, and that that hardly made him his pawn. Yet we’re supposed to believe if Trump appoints a replacement for Cook the Fed will suddenly fall into his back pocket.
I noticed European CB head running to the FED’s defence………hmmm
The Epstein thing is running again…………..but there is nothing. Where are all these (then) teenage females whom slept with Trump………..or anyone?
Yes we heard the prince Andrew stuff……….i dislike the man but its he said, she said.
The other i heard about was some college drop out whom at the tender age of 23 hooked up with Epstein & visited the island & is scared for life………in some way……that she is unwilling to say.
Why do so many allegations of impropriety and abuse surface only years later when the accused has become powerful, rich and famous?
The two sides of the court battle over tariffs are talking past each other. The opponents of the tariffs argue that only the legislature has the constitutional power to make tax law. The administration is talking past the courts, arguing that we need the tariffs; but that’s not the legal issue the courts are going to rule on.
It’s absurd. If we need the tariffs, go to Congress and lobby for passage.
Congress today hearing ref Free Speech in UK.
Nigel Farage giving wittiness before the committee faces off against Hank “Guam” Johnson……..where do the DNC get them?
ps. Did Guam “Flip over”?