What a bizarre economic world we inhabit in which a single fleeting sentence from a single individual can send the markets tumbling or soaring.

We've been conditioned to think this is normal. It isn't.

Not that I support the Federal Reserve even in its more modest original mission, but it did not occur to anyone in 1913 that the Fed had the responsibility (or even the ability) to steer the macroeconomic ship via its interest-rate voodoo.

Nobody knows what interest rates should be. Not Jerome Powell or anyone else. I say this even though today's rate cut sent my put positions way out of the money (that's a good thing, by the way, for those of you who don't trade). I like my prosperity the old-fashioned way: real, and not an illusion fostered by trickery.

But today, in a widely anticipated speech, Chairman Powell happened to say this:

"With policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance."

"Adjusting our policy stance" means getting back to the Fed's old tricks of monetary inflation and credit expansion.

There are people who spend their days teasing out what the Fed chairman means when he says X or Y.

I would rather jump off a cliff.

My work day consists primarily of email, which I enjoy writing.

One of the greats in this area is Igor Kheifets, whom I got to know during Covid when he hosted me on his podcast. He had the same burning contempt for the so-called public health authorities that I did.

None of it disrupted his work, which is based on email.

Most people and businesses have no idea what they're doing in this department. Igor and I do.

He's just released a book on it -- a book that will run you the princely sum of $3.99.

Sure beats trying to discern the hidden meanings in Fed statements, or being told by "public health" whether you're allowed to work, or whether you have to get a shot.

Go get, and read:

https://www.tomwoods.com/readit

Tom Woods