We’re currently facing 40-year inflation highs. The Fed has raised interest rates with promises of four or five increases this year. Can they tame the inflation beast without tanking the stock market and further eroding the economy? Or is it too late? 

Christopher Leonard is a business journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He's a New York Times bestselling author for his books, The Meat Racket and Kochland which won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award given by the Nieman Foundation and the Columbia University School of Journalism. On this episode of The Wiggin Sessions, Christopher joins me to share his insight on the impact of preserving such low federal interest rates for so long.

Christopher discusses why the Powell led Fed has failed to normalize interest rates, and how the mission creep of the Federal Reserve has led us further away from a stable economy and deeper into the trenches of the highest inflation we’ve seen in 40 years. 

Listen in to understand why it is the Federal Reserve’s policies more than broken supply chains, the pandemic, or Vladimir Putin that has led to our broken American economy. 

Key Takeaways

What made Christopher investigate the meat industry and the Koch brothers for his booksHow a 2016 interview with a financial trader led to his investigation of the Federal Reserve and his book, The Lords of Easy Money

Why the seduction of printing money looks so good to consumers but is so dangerous 

The philosophy that led to the great low-interest rates and excessive money printing experiment

What Christopher thinks is the most critical element of the Powell led Federal Reserve What caused the short circuit of the market in 2018 that led to the Powel Pivot

Who has more power, the President of the United States or the Fed Chairman 

How the Federal Reserve caused the greatest transfer of wealth, and income inequality in human history

Why the Fed is currently struggling to find a solution to inflation that won’t further erode the economy

Christopher explains why he is driven to put the facts of these systems in the hands of the average reader

Connect with Christopher Leonard

Christopher Leonard 

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Consilience Financial

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Resources 

The Lords of Easy Money

The Meat Racket

Kochland

The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards

I.O.U.S.A.

Federal Reserve System

Money Creation

FOMC 

Ben Bernanke 

Quantitative Easing

Janet Yellen 

Jerome Powell

The Powell Pivot

Why the Fed Keeps Getting It Wrong by James Rickards

Alan Greenspan

Paul A. Volcker 

Arthur burns

Nexis® 

William Jennings Bryan

Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO)

Mohamed A. El-Erian

Bethany McLean

James Grant