Here is an exchange I had this morning with someone I will only identify as the existential economist. I am AC.
EE: Fed will use this jobs report (+295k jobs) to justify raising rates. Despite average wage growth falling. AC: They want to get off zero so that they can cut later on when they fail again. Even if it is only 'symbolic.' I would almost guarantee that this is their game plan. I wonder if they will increase the rate that they pay the Banks on their excess reserves that the Fed provides? That could be another motivation. They *could* play that a bit. Or maybe using rates to drive investors into riskier assets is just for the little people, and they could just use it to increase the Banks' share in their vigorish.
Aren't we cynical? Maybe. Maybe not enough. I do not see the Fed doing anything to help anyone except to help the Banks belly up closer to an ever widening trough of economic distortions, inequality, and malinvestments.
