I posted this tweet this morning:

This must be headlined “The beatings won’t cease till we’ve got achieved the objective of recession.” Little doubt the identical will occur right here in the end…. pic.twitter.com/gUxQjY9HHx

— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) July 12, 2023

As is clear from the clipped component of the FT’s report, it could appear that the US is on the right track to fulfill its inflation objective, and shortly. What’s extra, the Fed has now achieved the objective that each central banker appears to have, of delivering constructive actual rates of interest within the US financial system, even when these are sure to suppress actual financial exercise.

Nevertheless, that isn’t sufficient for the Fed. They nonetheless need to enhance charges additional, the excuse being, in response to the identical FT report:

Costs are anticipated to extend 0.3 per cent on a month-to-month foundation in June, up from 0.1 per cent the earlier month, however the annual determine might be helped by so-called base results, as extraordinarily massive rises from June 2022 drop out of the calculations.

That is absurd. Not solely does this transformation the definition of inflation – which is all the time measured over a 12 months – but in addition provides in a brand new measure of core inflation which is inexpensive if non-core measures have gone all the way down to compensate.

The over-arching sense I get is that the Fed is on the lookout for any excuse to boost charges. It is aware of that this core inflation might be wholly unaffected by these rate of interest rises. As an alternative, they’re simply trying to create an atmosphere the place robust constructive rates of interest which might be designed to redistribute wealth upwards in society change into the norm.

Since when did we determine, anyplace, that central bankers have been to change into the determinants of what’s honest earnings distribution in society, and have been to be allowed to make use of that energy to considerably enhance inequality? That’s what appears to be taking place now. It’s essentially anti-democratic.