Federal reserve

The president-elect has threatened huge tariffs, although the levels are so unrealistic no one believes they will actually happen

It would be far better to simply let the correction run its course

Presidents rarely win reelection when output is falling

When times are good, everyone assumes the party will never end

For the past two decades, this sort of thing didn’t happen

It’s often said that inflation is a tax, but it’s worse than that. It’s theft

Distorting the market in service to progressivist race ideology hurts everybody

So is this really it: the end of the era of virtually zero interest rates? There was a marked pullback in US markets on Wednesday when Jay Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, indicated that yes, he really did mean it: interest rates are on the way up, if not quite yet. ‘The committee is of a mind to raise the federal funds rate at the March meeting assuming that conditions are appropriate for doing so.’ Share prices, which earlier in the day had risen in expectation of a doveish stance, fell back sharply. The very idea that a central bank might increase interest rates to tackle rising inflation

Inflation seldom explodes overnight: it builds up gradually

Two months ago The Spectator reported on what was keeping Rishi Sunak awake at night ahead of the Budget: an inflation resurgence that could damage Britain’s economic recovery as it comes out of the pandemic. He deliberately designed his March Budget with inflation in mind, trying to make the UK’s finances ‘Biden-proof’ if inflation or interest rates started to move, and the cost of servicing the country’s debt became remarkably more expensive. At the time, Sunak was a lone voice on the matter. His inflation fears put the decision to raise tax into perspective, but many remained critical of his rather cautious approach. Inflation seemed a strange focus as the conditions