Fed Resumes Money Printing; Powell Notes Labor Market Shrinking All Year

The Federal Reserve has announced that it is resuming today, Dec. 12, the purchase of $40 billion/month of short-term Treasury Bills—quantitative easing, or whatever else the Fed chooses to call it this bailout—while cutting the Federal Funds rate by one-quarter point to the range of 3.5-3.75%. This is done in tight partnership with the Treasury, which is flooding the market with these very short-term (up to one-year maturity) Bills as total Federal debt approaches $39 trillion. That partnership was called “regime change” when central bankers first proposed it at the 2019 Jackson Hole conference. Thus, while President Trump excoriates Fed chair Jerome Powell, Treasury Secretary Bessent continues have lunch weekly with Powell, coordinating monetary and fiscal policy hand-in-glove.