Nobody is good at this
In his latest post, titled "You're not good at this", the Joshua Brown observes, "Zero percent interest rates plus fiscal and monetary stimulus with housing up 40% and stocks at an all-time high was a ridiculous policy." Unequivocally agreed. He continues, "At a certain point, a person who is charge of price stability should probably look in the mirror..." Let us zoom out now. Perhaps we all need to look into the mirror. Of course "they" are "not good at this," because it's not a winnable game from an outside-the-box perspective. There should be no "person" or centralized entity in charge of price stability to begin with. What did we think that centralized control of the price of money would lead to?
The money printing (see: monetary inflation via increased money supply), which started well before the pandemic, accelerated dramatically during 2020, and continued increasing after, led to this haunting inflation. The Fed's options to quell inflation were limited within the confines of the current economic box in which we all operate. Well, they could have taken the laissez faire approach and let inflation run even hotter allowing people to see the real effects of currency debasement. And a Bitcoin Standard might become even more appealing to more people. However, we live in a world where the consequences of economic decisions are cushioned or altogether annihilated, in the short run at least, by centralized throttling of interest rates.
Furthermore, according to Matthew Piepenburg of Matterhorn Asset Management AG, the Fed's "fake war on inflation" probably won't accomplish much with "a Fed Funds Rate at 3%, 4% or even 5% is not only mathematically crippling to a nation which simply can’t afford such rates, it is equally impotent against a headline CPI print in the 8-9% range (and rising)."
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