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Best piece I’ve read on the tariffs so far.
The first movie on this list should be better known. (It’s an indispensable part of our domestic Holy Week liturgy, viewed in three installments over Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.)
“As we abandon our belief in the religious substructure that holds up the scaffolding of our minds, things like goodness, truth, and beauty become irrelevant…We adopt the postmodern idea that your truth is your truth, mine is my own, and that these contradictions can coexist…”
My new Substack post, “Beauty Will Save the World,” is live NOW!
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With Holy Week approaching, I was thinking of sharing a short daily meditation from St. Thomas Aquinas. Nothing from me—just his wisdom—but I’d do my best to walk you through it and help you understand it. Would that interest you?
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The Catholic Vs Protestant debate is as old as time. Yet the venom can be very unpleasant to deal with. Many of us seem to ignore what Christ commanded us to do.
I also remember Volcker saying that interest rates alone were not enough.
I also remember Volcker raising rates AFTER peak inflation had passed.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=UO52
Inflation was already in retreat when Volcker pushed rates to near 14%. Arguably there was never a need for the last 100bps of rate hikes.
But most critically, Treasury yields are not cooperating with the Volcker script this time around.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=UMMz
Treasury yields are not tracking close to inflation the way they did in the 1980s.
Why that is happening is a damn good question, but the reality of the data is that Powell's rate hikes are not behaving the same way Volcker's did. Failing to acknowledge that and adjusting the strategy accordingly is simply irrational.
If yields don't cooperate the Volcker playbook is effectively mooted.