The Fed put morphs into a Fed call
The once-benevolent central bank now looks vengeful for markets
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/media-assets/image/20220723_FND001.jpg)
When stocks boomed early in the pandemic, an internet meme captured the madness of the moment. On the left-hand side of the image, a worried man exclaims that simply creating money cannot save the economy; on the right, a man representing the Federal Reserve replies “Haha money printer go brrr” while cranking out dollars. Joseph Politano, author of Apricitas, an economics newsletter, recently tweaked the meme to better fit the present situation. On the left, the worried man laments that excessive monetary tightening is increasing the risk of a recession; to the right, the Fed representative retorts “Haha money vacuum go brrr”, while hoovering up dollars.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Wake-up call”
Finance & economics July 23rd 2022
- The 53 fragile emerging economies
- How American banks are responding to rising interest rates
- Dollar-euro parity may be justified. But the yen looks cheap as chips
- Is China facing an energy crunch, too?
- Fresh woe for China’s property sector: mortgage boycotts
- The Fed put morphs into a Fed call
- Should central banks’ inflation targets be raised?
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