from Investment Research Dynamics
“[T]he Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 percent and anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate. In addition, the Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities.” – July FOMC Policy Statement
The FOMC voted unanimously in favor of the Policy Statement and related actions released last week. While the Fed indicated that “ongoing increases” will be data dependent, the key data points consistent with the alleged Fed mandate are CPI inflation and the unemployment rate. Both are phony numbers but if the Fed thinks it can attack inflation by attacking consumer demand, it will need to continue hiking rates for now and it can point to a sub-4% unemployment rate, as fictitious as that number may be, to justify continued rate hikes.