US fiscal policy is increasingly infringing upon the Federal Reserve’s independence, heightening already elevated secular inflation risks and condemning the dollar to an even deeper debasement in its value... It was good while it lasted. But the modern era of monetary policy independence is drawing to a close, with central banks reverting to their usual position of subservience to their fiscal overseers. That’s a bad portent for fiat currencies, whose real value has already been decimated in the decades since the link with gold was fully severed. The exchange-rate value of the dollar has been rallying in recent ... (full story)