The Fed Doesn't Seem To Believe Either Presidential Candidate

Trump says inflation's raging out of control, and Harris dares not contradict him. Maybe today's rate cut can restore sanity to this discussion.

Jerome Powell, MAGA criminal.

The Federal Reserve must not be following the presidential election. If it did, it would know that inflation is raging out of control. Trump lies about this constantly (“bacon costing four or five times more”; actually the price is up less than one quarter), and Kamala Harris, to my irritation, dares not contradict him, lest she hurt somebody’s feelings. But the Fed dropped interest rates today by a robust 0.5 points! Rather than crow that this shows Trump is full of it, Harris stated solemnly: “While this announcement is welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices, my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down.” Oh, brother.

In my latest for The New Republic, I argue that polls show that people kind of know the economy’s in good health even as they say it isn’t, because they consistently report themselves to be better off than their imagined everybody else. Even when voters express preference to pollsters for Harris on the economy, as they’re starting to do, they continue to fault President Joe Biden for messing it up. Trump exploits this anti-government hallucination by promising tax cuts for the working class. Which is a con. I explain why in my piece.