You just can’t make this up. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, once so adamant about controlling inflation, now finds himself back at square one. “Transitory,” he said, just like the early days of this crisis. That term—used to downplay what we all knew was coming—is now being recycled like some tired political mantra, as if we didn’t watch inflation ramp up for years, draining Americans’ pockets. Powell’s response? The same cautious dance—“uncertainty,” he calls it, as if it somehow masks the truth: inflation is here to stay, and it’s hitting the middle class the hardest.
Powell’s rosy rhetoric doesn’t square with the data. Retail sales are up, but it’s all inflation—no real growth. And while the Fed talks about downside risks, the committee’s own reports scream otherwise. 18 out of 19 members see inflation risks climbing, yet Powell’s rhetoric doesn’t align with the reality on the ground. The disconnect is too obvious to ignore, and it shows just how out of touch these leaders have become with the everyday struggles of Americans. What happened to fighting for a healthy economy? Instead, we’re left dealing with stagflation, a nightmare that’s about to get worse.
“Is it possible… that the Fed actually caused inflation by creating money out of thin air to finance Government spending and holding interest rates artificially low for so long?”
Ancient Astronaut Theorists say YES https://t.co/qkNCLTTdGF
— StockCats (@RealStockCats) March 19, 2025
You can’t make this up:
Fed Chair Powell was just asked if tariff inflation is “transitory.”
“That’s the base case,” he responded.
How did we end up back at “inflation is transitory?” pic.twitter.com/53Jr2dE11b
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) March 19, 2025
More than two-thirds of the increase in retail sales over the past 5 years was just inflation w/ nominal values up 37.6% and real gains of just 11.5% while real values are down since Apr ’21: pic.twitter.com/7J4vfJruCR
— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) March 19, 2025
Powell downplays the hawkishness in the updated SEP, and leans heavily on the word “uncertainty” to convey two sided risks.
But details in the SEP show near all in the FOMC see risks to Fed’s mandate as not two sided but one sided:
-18 of 19 see upside inflation risks. The… pic.twitter.com/0tKZBZC7GK
— Anna Wong (@AnnaEconomist) March 19, 2025
This clip is from almost exactly 11 months ago:
Fed Chair Powell was asked about stagflation and he said he’s not seeing the “stag” or the “flation.”
Today, the Fed raised both unemployment and inflation forecasts for 2025, while cutting GDP growth estimates.
We are now seeing… pic.twitter.com/w5c35jnIWa
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) March 19, 2025
People are still underestimating how big Trump’s plans are for tariffs on April 2. (or soon thereafter…)
His team is prepping tariffs on “trillions of dollars” in imports on almost every nation the US trades with.
This will cause a lot of pain for the US economy and,… pic.twitter.com/u0n8kC4MXP
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) March 19, 2025
Powell finally found the “stag” and the “flation”:
Fed cuts year-end GDP forecast from 2.1% to 1.7%
Fed raises year-end core PCE forecast from 2.5% to 2.8%
Fed raises year-end unemployment forecast from 4.3% to 4.4% pic.twitter.com/ftFkQL65RS— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 19, 2025
OH MY GOD.
“Your grocery bill is about PAST inflation.” – Powell
F*** YOU @jeromehpowell pic.twitter.com/JahZt9sDUh
— Rudy Havenstein, Senior Markets Commentator. (@RudyHavenstein) March 19, 2025
JEROME POWELL:
“Tariff inflation could be transitory.”
please no.
Not the two T words at the same time.
😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/jLcw5PbXpr
— amit (@amitisinvesting) March 19, 2025
