Okay, this is beyond what even I thought possible when noting in NFTRH 406 (ref. this post: A Treasure Trove of Nuggets From the MSM)…
“Yes yes, I know the Fed does not see enough inflation yet. And that is just the point. They told us last week that there is not enough inflation and damned if they are not going to keep trying to promote it. It is also worth considering that while they will probably send various expectations managers to their assigned microphones, there is no meeting in August and there is a lot of room for asset price appreciation between now and September 21, per their wishes I assume (by their policy inactions and their inflationary words).”
In the above linked post we noted the San Fran Fed’s Williams managing expectations for a rate hike to the Washington Post, no less.
Today we are treated to…
Fed’s Williams says inflation target should be increased
The current target “is not well suited” for the new low-interest-rate era because “there is simply not enough room for central banks to cut interest rates in response to an economic downturn,” Williams said…
So with interest rates not likely to rise by much, the Fed is expected to have to resort to extraordinary measures like additional bond buying or negative rates to stimulate the economy in the face of a renewed downturn.
Are you kidding me? I mean, these clowns cannot even manage expectations the right way. Last week, a hawk message, and this week a convoluted dove message, talking up inflation. The idea of managing expectations is to have an agenda and then go about manipulating public opinion toward that agenda. Not to confuse the shit out of everybody.
And to further complicate matters, another one pops up in the media today, using Fox News as his mouthpiece. I actually like Dudley, relative to some of the other clowns. But why was it so predictable that August – sans an FOMC meeting – would be ‘expectations management in the media’ month?
Fed’s William Dudley: Rate hike could come next month
You want to think these are decent people, but if they could see themselves the way the public (that part of the public not obsessed with the Olympics or the most cartoonish presidential race yet) sees them, they would realize that they are straw men (and one powerful straw woman), who are running low on credibility because a) they refuse to normalize rates despite what is now years of increasingly hawkish jawboning and stable economic outcomes and b) because they cannot even unify a message with which to manipulate us.
All the Fed is doing is confusing the crap out of everybody.
