Powell declares victory...

For the Cantillon Effect!

Here’s a stream of consciousness commentary on today’s events…

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"...the little people who had small savings were wiped out. But the big factories and banking houses and multi-millionaires didn’t seem to be affected at all. They went right on piling up their millions. Those big holdings were protected somehow from loss..."

Phyllis Knight, A Very Ordinary Life

“The Federal Reserve Reform Act of 1977, for one, does not say ‘price stability.’ It does in particular not say ‘a stable rate of inflation.’ It says ‘stable prices.”

- Alex J. Pollock, President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago from 1991-2004

Watch Jerome stumble through how they went from a 0% inflation mandate to a 2% (and now obviously much higher) inflation target:

Billionaires love inflation.

Sternlicht doesn't want the gravy train to end.

"Our market rate multifamily portfolio experienced rent growth of 18% year over-year on new leases and mid-13% on combined new and renewal leases over the trailing 30, 60 and 90 days ended June 30, 2022."

[These are] highly leveraged commercial office investment groups we are talking about here…mortgaged to the gills to maximize real estate capital gains under eternal ZIRP that has ended and the only thing keeping the cash flowing was unsustainably low cost of money now cut off. Because if they had any more cash flowing they would have leveraged it into more property again. Basically, most of the market. The fast money flippers. The smartest guys in the room.

"If you're in commercial real estate you certainly want inflation, thank you very much."

- Chris Whalen

"Side by side with unprecedented want among the bulk of the population, there is a striking display of luxury among those who are benefiting by the inflation. This minority, which makes a profit out of the misery of our country, is giving an unwarranted appearance of prosperity."

- Anna Eisenmenger, The Diary of an Austrian Middle-Class Woman, 1914-1924

Notice anything below? (They still say they have a “2% target”)

Core PCE has been over 2% since May 2021.

Asset bubbles?

And remember, the CPI that says inflation is 2.9% YOY (massively above 2%!) is using the same BLS CPI math-model nonsense that claimed, to use one example, that new car prices didn’t rise for 25 years.

Anyway, time to cut rates again!

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A reminder that people must survive on price levels, not rate of change."

The smirking gall of this guy Powell:

“The good ship Transitory was a crowded one, with most mainstream analysts and advanced-economy central bankers on board…It became clear that the high inflation was not transitory…That is my assessment of events. Your mileage may vary.”"

The good ship transitory??

As always, no accountability at all for any of these people:"

Everyone without an econ PhD or who didn’t work for mainstream financial media laughed at the “transitory” nonsense. As Peter Boockvar put it back in June 2021:

"Of course, there was always inflation. There's no such thing as no inflation. It's just lower inflation than what they want. We always have inflation, inflation is not transitory, it always goes up. It's just the rate of change that we're debating here."

Hell, in May 2021 I was trying to warn everyone in my own way…

Hell, this is from October 2020:

Right after this financial war crime:

Powell and the FOMC permanently harmed a couple hundred million Americans by making them poorer, after vowing to intentionally spike their cost of living.

Heckuva job, Jay.

Jerome Powell, April 2021: We'd "like to see [inflation] on track to move moderately above 2% 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚"

Jerome Powell, September 2023: "People hate inflation, hate it."

Jerome Powell, June 12, 2024: “Lower income people at the margins of the economy have the worst experience, experience the most pain from inflation"

Citadel Ben, what do you think? Is inflation a regressive tax? (This was when core CPI was running 2.246% YOY)

Where’s Bernanke now?

Ray Dalio explains…

“The middle class was hurt more than any other, the savings of a lifetime and their small fortunes melted into few coppers. They had to sell their most precious belongings for ten milliard inflated marks to buy a bit of food or an absolutely necessary coat, and their pride and dignity were bleeding out of many wounds. Bitterness remained for ever in their hearts. Full of hatred, they accused the international financiers, the Jews and Socialists - their old enemies - of having exploited their distress. They never forgot and never forgave and were the first to lend a willing ear to Hitler's fervent preaching.”

Lilo Linke, ‘Restless days: A German girl's autobiography’