• Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made several bizarre, if not shocking, admissions during a prank call with two Russians posing as Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, where they discussed topics ranging from inflation, to the Russian central bank, to joking about having a ‘printing press’ in the basement and possibly setting up a federal reserve bank in Kiev.
• More interesting was Powell’s admission, thinking he was speaking with Zelensky, during the call (which reportedly took place in January) that the Fed would hike rates two more times – a topic on which he has been far more circumspect even when giving testimony before Congress.
• “The market is already pricing in two more quarter percentage point rate hikes. We’ll look around after we make those two and we’ll say should we do any more, and then the question will be how long do we keep rates at this level – and I think we’ll keep them there for quite some time,” said Powell, roughly two minutes into the clip below.

Tagged: World War III