Would you take one of the world’s worse jobs for a salary of $203,500?  If not, you’ll never be Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board!  We’re lucky anybody would take the job, especially a person like Jay Powell.

Yesterday, he led the Board in raising short-term interest rates by a quarter-point (1/4) or 25 basis points, with the stated expectation of six more similar increases this year.  Half of Wall Street thinks he is trying to induce a recession, in order slow inflation.  They believe it is too early to raise interest rates.  The other half of Wall Street thinks he is too timid and should have already raised interest rates by a half-point (1/2) or 50 basis points instead.

By the way, the Fed stopped quantitative easing or increasing money supply last week and received almost no praise for that, even thought that will probably do more to curb inflation than raising interest rates.  People understand interest rates better than they understand quantitative easing or tightening.  Oh, well . . .

With both sides upset, Chair Powell must be doing a good job!