Today, Jerome Powell reminded everyone why he fully deserves to be called Jerome Burns instead (in honor of the #FED chairman Arthur Burns, the one that couldn’t get anything right). For the entire length of his 60 Minutes interview, you can really understand:
🚩The #FED chair denies being a politician, but then talks and behaves like one (because he is)
🚩 The #FED is still in strong denial about the cancer spreading across the banking system
J-Burns: “we have a strong economy. Growth is going on at a solid pace. The labor market is strong: 3.7% unemployment. And inflation is coming down.” Then a few minutes later: “…the really good readings we’ve had for the last six months somehow turn out not to be a true indicator of where inflation’s heading”
If we were sitting at a poker table, every other player surrounding Jerome would have immediately called his bluff as soon as that “somehow” word flew out of his mouth. Unfortunately, no matter how long you prep, the subconscious part of the human brain always finds its way to express a person’s true thoughts.
All those (political) adjustments the BLS and other US agencies have been running wild with for a long time have created such a distorted version of reality that it is now so hard to deny. Our hero J-Burns knows it.
Then the (astute) politician in him starts to surface. How else do you think he managed to survive in his role across two presidents so far apart from each other? “We’re very focused on our jobs, you know? We’re focused on the real economy and doing the right thing for the economy and for the American people over the medium and long term”, and then of course “We do not consider politics in our decisions. We never do. And we never will”. However, a few words after, Jerome’s subconscious thinking surfaces again and the bluff becomes so obvious “And I think the record — fortunately, the historical record really backs that up. People have gone back and looked.”
I think? Fortunately? People have gone back and looked? At the poker table, all the other players would have now stood up and screamed all together “bluff!”.
Most of the interview can be really summarized with the image of Jerome Burns taking victory laps on an empty stadium while cheers of the crowds are blasting from the speakers. However at some points the speakers start cracking when Mr. Pelley says: “There are people watching this interview who are skeptical about that”. To what Jerome Burns replies “Integrity is priceless” and “we plan to keep ours” forgetting (conveniently) #FED officials not only have been caught red-handed doing insider trading, for example, but they even got away with it as if nothing happened!
The best, and worst part at the same time, of the interview came towards the end when Jerome pulled up the script so obviously agreed in the Ivory tower where all Central Bankers live blaming the failure of Silicon Valley Bank to a bank run triggered by Social Networks. Don’t forget the #ECB just asked banks to keep an eye on socials for signs of bank runs (TwitterX). This is the ultimate paradox of these crazy times: if a bank is solvent, then the Central Bank as the lender of last resort is there to provide all necessary liquidity to handle an eventual bank run. Many banks are clearly insolvent for a long time (post below), but as this interview confirmed the only thing central banks can do is try to deny the facts, kick the can down the road as long as possible and hope for a miracle that fixes everything (without pain) for them.
Personally speaking, to me Jerome Powell for #60minutes truly looked like this popular #meme:
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