The last SriKonomics discussed how Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell argued, unconvincingly, at his press conference June 14 that the central bank was not done with hiking rates after pausing that day. Given the Chairman’s level of credibility, equity markets rallied on the assumption that the Fed would not pursue the tightening that Powell had suggested. He found himself left alone at the pausing altar as other major central banks made significant tightening moves, and he was forced last week by these developments to virtually guarantee a rate increase at the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on ... (full story)