FOMC Minutes - 2022-08-16

Participants anticipated a low CPI print after the July meeting, driven by falling gasoline prices. But while they insist that high gas prices raise inflation, they deny that falling prices can lower inflation: "these prices could quickly rebound." Same for anticipated improvements in supply chains: they "could not be relied on to resolve the supply and demand imbalances in the economy" (yet the same committee said they created the imbalances on the way up). And they fret about rising wages fueling inflation, yet say there is an "apparent absence of a wage-price spiral." So "moving to a restrictive stance of policy was required." And not one word about the money supply. Let's say it out loud: these people are dangerous fools.