Would the Fed Please Shut Up?

At the beginning of 2016, the Federal Reserve Board anticipated four quarterly interest rate hikes for the year.  Three quarters of the way through the year, the Fed hasn't lift rates even once.  And it's far from certain it will in December.

Why such a divergence between expectations and reality?  In a nutshell, because economists can't predict the future.  Essentially all leading and well-regarded economists get it wrong when they try to predict future economic growth.  Since the Fed is an economist-driven agency, it devotes a lot of time and energy to being wrong.  And it has been wrong early and often this year.  It's probably wrong in suggesting a significant likelihood of a December increase.  The truth is it has no way (i.e., zero percent probability) of knowing whether or not it will raise rates in December.  Its capacity for error has been copiously demonstrated and its "guidance" is worth less than a palm reader's prognostications.

Who benefits from the Fed's "guidance"?  Not investors, who only profit if they disbelieve what the Fed says.  Not consumers, whose bank accounts and certificates of deposit, money market accounts, bond holdings, pensions, and long term care insurance policies are being devastated by the perpetuation of Lilliputian interest earnings.  Those who would prepare for the future with life insurance and annuities face ever-escalating costs.  Comfortable retirement is increasingly available only for those who have both very high incomes and a ferocious propensity to save.  Everyone else will become a burden on public retirement financing.  Anyone who thinks the government will be balancing the budget by cutting the cost of Social Security and Medicare is chilling on angel dust.  Tax increases and more deficit spending will be necessary--full stop, end of discussion.  The bulk of retirees will be largely or entirely dependent on the government and any thought of cutting retirement benefits will prompt a political insurgency that would make this year's election look like a circle of kindergartners singing Kumbaya.

There are people who benefit from the Fed's "guidance."  Speculators, who make fast money bets on what some Fed official or other will say in the next three days.  Derivatives dealers, who write contracts for those who want to hedge or speculate about the Fed's "guidance."  Pundits and journalists, who try to say something profound about every cough or facial tic from one Fed official or another.  Stock and bond market dealers, who profit when the market churns each time a Fed governor smiles or frowns.  In other words, Wall Street is making money off of this.  But the "guidance" isn't making an overall contribution to the well-being of society.

The Fed used to be pretty discrete.  Back in the 1950's and 60's, we had robust growth, low unemployment, and ebullient optimism, all without a stream of prattle from the Fed.  There's no obvious need for the Fed to yack, yack, yack all the time.  We could do without all the false expectations created by inaccurate Fed prognostications.  Would the Fed just please shut up?