Today (8/22/25), Powell caved and indicated that he’s open to a September rate cut. But he wasn’t caving to reality or data; he caved politically to Trump’s pressure.
This is going to turn out to be a historic blunder even by the Fed’s own lofty standards.
Consider:
While there are some recession indicators flashing bright red, everything else is absolutely indicating that what we need is a rate hike not a rate cut.
But that’s only if you care about people and their economic future. If, instead, you care more about making stocks go higher and stoking higher inflation, especially of financial assets, then you opt for the rate cut.
This was the Fed’s “Let them eat cake!” moment.
Notably, a few FOMC members actually were aware of the fact that the stock market is explosively bubbling along:
But, those concerns weren’t sufficient to blunt the desire to get everything, inflation included, screaming higher.
And that’s exactly what happened:
What The Fed Said
What the Fed said was nothing short of abusive to every financially struggling America, which is the majority of them.
That first line screams abusively at every struggling person. It says, “Look we know that your well-being depends on us not stoking more inflation, but we just don’t care enough to actually stop creating more inflation.”
Currently inflation is running nearly double the Fed’s stated (but ignored) 2% target.
by cmartenson 
