The Federal Reserve is about to make some of its most consequential decisions in years, with surprisingly little fresh data in hand. For the December 9–10 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and beyond, senior Fed officials are signaling bold steps on interest rates and deregulation. This despite the fact that official data they have stop in September. The loud, confident pronouncements we have heard lately are not the product of deep in-house analysis. They are, instead, competitive moves in a very public audition. The reason is simple: politics and career incentives. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ... (full story)