If you have got to deliver devastating news, you might as well do it in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, right? At the annual meeting of the Kansas City Federal Reserve in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, delivered the really, really scary news. In order to reduce inflation, he warned, there will be “pain to households and businesses”. And, the stock market took a dive.

For the last few years, the President and those purveyors of the power of the purse, Congress, have been spending like drunken politicians. It’s been even worse since Joe Biden assumed office and the Senate was split 50/50. Thank you, Georgia. When I was contemplating the irresponsible spending and 87,000 new IRS agents, a song came into my head. It’s an old song by Joe Diffie called “Third Rock from the Sun”. The chorus is all about “cause and effect”:

‘Cause and effect, chain of events
All of the chaos makes perfect sense
When you’re spinnin’ round
Things come undone
Welcome to Earth, third rock from the Sun

That’s how cause and effect works. One thing flows to another, inevitably. Congress prints money to hand out to voters. Then Congress taxes you to get money to pay debts. You scream from the pain in your pocketbook and Congress prints more money to hand out. All of that money printing causes the economy to overheat as the money chases fewer goods. Inflation, Hyperinflation and Stagflation follow as night follows day. Cause and effect. The creepy dude in the Oval Office claims that inflation is at zero, because he lies and doesn’t understand economics or much else.

Here is the video from Chairman Powell in Jackson Hole discussing the effect that is going to cause you pain:

Really before Powell finished speaking, the stock market started responding. Let’s look at what he said from the New York Times:

“While higher interest rates, slower growth and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses,” Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, said during a speech at the Kansas City Fed’s annual conference in Wyoming. “These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.”

Translation: Forget buying that electric vehicle, forget retiring your investments are gone, and you are going part-time on your job if you are lucky. You are a drone being manipulated by the elites who manage to feck everything up. Here is a little nuggest of pain from Powell:

Jerome Powell says restoring inflation to the 2% target is the central bank’s “overarching focus right now” even though consumers and businesses will feel economic pain https://t.co/WkU7g95Sdm pic.twitter.com/GXDyqMSueh

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) August 26, 2022

I am not a fan of the Federal Reserve. That whole power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats thing, you know. The responsibility for our fiscal health should be in the hands of the Executive and Legislative branches. The Fed allows those cretins to ignore their responsibilities. And, Powell is a coward. He doesn’t say “just maybe those in elected offices should stop fecking around with the fiscal lives of American citizens”. Yes, the burdens of inflation do fall mostly heavily on those you can least afford them, but there are also fewer who can afford them as irresponsible spending shrinks the middle class.

Carrie Sheffield writing in the Daily Caller noticed this too:

Yet again, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell refused Friday to show leadership and urge President Joe Biden and Congress to stop their inflationary fiscal spiral.

During Powell’s remarks Friday at an economic policy symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the chairman offered no useful wisdom to warn the White House and Capitol Hill. He offered no alarm over their reckless spending, from Congress’ falsely-named “Inflation Reduction Act” to Biden’s likely illegal student loan debacle that are directly stirring up headwinds against Powell’s own battle against inflation.

Instead, Powell simply offered a resigned, lackadaisical, passive acceptance of continued pain for American families who are now battered by twin rams of sky-high inflation and interest rate hikes.

“Resigned, lackadaisical, passive acceptance of continued pain”. Cause and effect. Chain of events. It’s time to grow up. Understand economics doesn’t involve magical backyard money trees and hold our elected officials accountable. Pay your own damn student loans. The Green New Deal is a giant money suck that doesn’t stop the climate from changing. And, audit the Federal Reserve.

Featured Image: The Focal Project/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons AndWikimedia Commons.org/Public Domain