How Will We Remember JPow?
09/06/2022
When none other than Warren Buffett recommends a book, it might just be worth it to pay attention.
That’s how I came across Trillion Dollar Triage, the book about the Fed’s response to the Covid economic shutdown. You might love the book or hate it, depending on your view of JPow and other figures on the political scene.
How it will age remains to be seen, but I think it might provide some clues about the Fed’s actions today. My personal take on Powell is that he’s determined not to be remembered as the guy who stood around with his d*ck in the wind—whether it’s the Covid crisis, inflation, or some other issue. But that’s just my speculation. Others might draw a different conclusion.
Anyway, I liked the book. It was long, a little dense and technical…but Buff Daddy knows his books.
Peace out.
Mike
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Analysis, Reviews, and Weird Business News
How Will Jay Powell Be Remembered?
Economics
For most of the summer, many investors have stroked themselves to the thought that slowing growth would cause the Fed to ease up on rate hikes, with the planned climax being a rate cut sometime next month.
JPow rudely disabused investors of that fantasy last week.
In a speech at the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole conference, the Fed chair insisted that “the historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy,” abruptly cutting off the stock market rally of the last few months.
Book Analysis: The book Trillion Dollar Triage, which was published just as inflation began to hit the U.S. economy, paints Powell as a non-partisan hero. But it also portrays a guy who is obsessed with avoiding the mistakes of the past—perhaps not a sign that the Fed will step in to ‘save’ the market for political purposes.
"Trillion Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic---and Prevented Economic Disaster" is available now on Amazon. Support this publication by ordering through the Tycoonist Amazon storefront
Mogul Moves
Tracking Big Investors and Business Leaders
British billionaire Lord Alan Sugar tweeted that remote workers “should be paid less.” Sugar later doubled down, asserting that WFH consisted of people “watching golf and tennis at home while they supposed to be working.” The tweet comes as companies are trying to get people to return to the office this fall (again).
Gautam Adani, the Indian business magnate who made his fortune in commodity trading, became the world’s third-richest person last week with a net worth of $140B; some analysts have questioned his company’s incredible rise, noting the large amount of debt.
Horizon Kinetics, an investment advisory best known for its odd embrace of both classic value investing and crypto, just launched an ETF focused on blockchain development (ticker BCDF 0.00%↑ ). The firm believes that exchanges, crypto-focused financial services, and crypto miners will benefit over the long-term from the “tokenization” of financial assets.
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