What the Fed Said, and Didn't Say, Last Wednesday

The big news out of the Fed's Wednesday monetary policy announcement: Chairman Jerome Powell didn't get demoted afterwards![i] Oh, and the Fed held interest rates steady and tweaked its guidance in an allegedly more “dovish” direction, supposedly throwing a lifeline to markets drowning in trade war and recession fears. We take a different view: Despite near-universal hype of the Fed's announcement as make-or-break for the economy and stocks, we think it meant little for either—or even for future Fed policy.