Powell's Great War Tactics Catch Markets Off Guard
The Fed took investors by surprise by doing exactly what it said it would do.
Inside the Fed’s war room.
Photographer: Don Smith/Radio Times/Getty Images
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As the Federal Reserve’s governors do battle with deflation, and with the markets, they are borrowing some tactics from the First World War. In the classic U.K. sitcom Blackadder Goes Forth, the British general briefs his officers on a “brilliant new tactical plan” — to climb out of their trenches and walk very slowly toward the enemy. To the objection that the British have tried doing this 18 times already, the response is that this will brilliantly allow them to catch the Germans off guard. “Doing precisely what we’ve done 18 times before is exactly the last thing they’ll expect us to do this time.”