The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates again, squeezing working Americans' paychecks and savings while the architects of the inflation crisis face zero accountability.
Why it matters: every rate hike makes borrowing more expensive for ordinary people — mortgages, car loans, credit cards — while Wall Street gets advance warning and adjusts its positions. The people who inflated the money supply and drove prices skyward feel no pain. You do.
Kevin Warsh, sworn in as Federal Reserve chairman, promised a "policy regime change" and pledged not to repeat past mistakes, according to the Washington Examiner. He vowed to be an independent leader with high ethical standards, someone markets and the public could trust. That included a willingness to resist persistent calls for lower interest rates by the president who appointed him, Donald Trump.
But four-plus months into his tenure, Warsh finds himself in the same boat as his predecessor: sticky inflation and the need for higher interest rates, the Examiner reported. So much for regime change. The swap at the top changed nothing for the bottom line on your grocery receipt.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution framed the coming week around Wall Street's busy calendar — Fed minutes, unemployment data, and consumer sentiment updates — focusing on how "investors and economists" will gain "more insight into how businesses and households are adapting to persistently high inflation." Notice who comes first in that framing: investors, then households. The AJC buried the Main Street stake in the seventh paragraph of its outlook.
Upcoming data includes the Institute for Supply Management's monthly service sector index for September, which covers the bulk of U.S. economic activity, along with fresh unemployment numbers and consumer sentiment readings. The Fed minutes from the last meeting will reveal more about the central bank's decision-making process.
What neither outlet explores: who created the inflation in the first place, and why only working Americans are asked to sacrifice to fix it. The same central bank that pumped the money supply now demands that you absorb the cost of tightening — through lost job opportunities, more expensive debt, and drained savings.
Warsh's much-touted "independence" turns out to mean independence from the president who wants lower rates — not independence from the institutional consensus that always shields Wall Street first.
The open question remains: how many more rate hikes before the people who built this inflation are asked to answer for it?
