Fed's Upcoming FOMC Decision Is Likely to Have Little Effect on General Living Conditions for Most People

The degree of anticipation surrounding the "most momentous Fed decision in years" is truly breathtaking and utterly stupid. It's almost a bad as the level of hype and media droning about the upcoming presidential election. To think that a group of overrated acadmics are qualified to determine the fate of the U.S. economy, and, to a large extent, that of the entire world, goes far beyond the normal outlines of pure economics. The decision to lower the federal funds target rate either by 25 or 50 basis points has taken on qualities previously reserved for Delphic oracles, magicians, and gypsy fortune-tellers. It's as though the entire world will suddenly become better or worse just because of the decision made by 12 eggheads sitting around a mahogany table. Here's a news flash: very little in the lives of billions of people will change dramtically whatever the FOMC decides of Wednesday. Most people will be more affected by what their kids or close relatives do, their job performance, their health, or the relative functionality of the cars they drive. Even presidential elections have little to do with everyday operations. In a lifetime that began in, say, the 1960s, what enormous differences were there in most people's lives whether the president was Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama? Not a heck of a lot. Prices for everything went up during each of their administrations, the U.S. waged war or had conflicts against various other countries, some people worked, others didn't, kids went to school, technology advanced. Nothing was so vastly different under different presidents or Federal Reserve chairmen so as to cause violent, surprising, or damatic changes in the lifestyles of Americans, and, to a large degree, those of billions of people living around the world. Sure, changes made by presidents and FOMC voters had some subtle effects. Inflation ran hotter or cooler at various junctures. The threat of war was higher or lower. There was higher or lower unemployment, but overall, presidents and economists don't change the world. People do. Individuals doing what they desire, engaged in activities decided by themselves have collectively more impact on the overall world construction than anything any president, or congressman, or economist might conjure up out of the miasma of sympathies, theories, suggestions, and possibilities floating about in the ecosphere of ideas. Little things add up and the collective interests of homo sapiens matter more than the delusional proclamations of kings, rulers, soothsayers, and analysts. Technological breaktroughs and advancements in science are usually more profound and create longer-lasting effects on larger populations. There are times when leaders, usually dictators or democratically-elected persons blunder into earth-shattering conditions, like Hitler or Hirohito in World War II, or Lyndon Johnson in the Vietnam era, but, even then, for the most part, the lives of millions of individiduals are hardly affected. In the leadup to World War II, while war raged at various locales in Europe for many years, Americans enjoyed peace at home prior to entering the conflict. Change was sudden after Pearl Harbor, but it was individual American men and women who made choices: to fight or not, to work within the war machine or avoid it, to support America's role or not. With Vietnam, it was the actions and voices of the masses that changed the direction of the war, as campus protests and significant rallies in opposition to America's engagement that eventually swayed public opinion - and that of the leading actors in Washington - to forestall and eventually end the conflict. So, what the Fed does on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, will not forever go down in he annals of history as an epochal event. Rather, it will be considered to be either wise or devoid of reason, depending on the eventual outcome of the future and other policies and decisions from other, unrelated quarters. There's little chance that whatever is decided tomorrow will be consequential. The path of financial destruction and debasing of the currency is well trod upon and likely irreversible. The same will be true of the presidential choice and decisions made and policies pursued by either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. The road upon which we all travel has a distinct destination and the only question is how quickly or slowly the world lurches towards it. In the meantime, individuals will either prepare or not. Politicians and bureaucrats may try to - and often do - influence the actions of people far beyond their immediate circles, but, in the end, it is people, individually and collectively, who make changes. At the Close, Monday, September 16, 2024: Dow: 41,622.08, +228.30 (+0.55%) NASDAQ: 17,592.13, -91.85 (-0.52%) S&P 500: 5,633.09, +7.07 (+0.13%) NYSE Composite: 19,256.38, +134.88 (+0.71%)

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