Excerpts from ZeroHedge, Sept 3, 2025
“Is The Fed Setting Up Trump To Be The Scapegoat?“

It should be obvious the answer is “Yes”.
Not that I’m pessimistic or anything.

When the SHTF … coming soon to wherever you be … it will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
The US won’t escape this time – the US will be the target.

There will be no proper prepping, there will be no planned “safe place”; when it comes – signs seem to indicate soon – there will be only luck, fate, the grace of God.
God may have mercy on our souls but there are no promises for our corporeal selves.
My suggestion? Live life as if it’s normal. Don’t worry, don’t “prep” beyond normality, just enjoy what you have and where you are.

And when the time comes (which no man knows of) … ?
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Examining the US price Index from the year 1800 to 1913 reveals a period of continuously falling prices. The price index was down by more than 40% by 1913, as compared to the starting year 1800. By some estimates, this fall in prices was even higher as the product basket was continuously becoming better and not even strictly comparable. Most major innovations we can think of – telephones, automobiles, airplanes, computers, mass production, modern medicine, military hardware, etc – happened during this period. The transition of the US from an erstwhile colony of the British Empire to the dominant superpower also occurred in this period. If falling prices had caused the Great Depression of 1929 to 1946, as is popularly believed, or as the Phillips curve implies, the entire 19th century (1801-1900) should have been an extended depression. Instead, what we actually witnessed was a boom of unparalleled proportions in modern history, except for what has happened in China starting in 1990 to date.

The mainstream media narrative even today is that Trump wants to lower interest rates to achieve even higher growth rates, from already what is the “best performing economy ever”. On the other hand, Powell intends to hold the rates steady to protect the purchasing power of the US Dollar. The economic truth is that both narratives are flawed.

Even a 0% rate today cannot prevent a bust of the financial systems that is floating on a sea of asset bubbles – an AI bubble that dwarfs the NASDAQ 2000 bubble; a housing bubble that is far bigger than the 2008 housing bubble; and a US bond bubble that is bigger than these two bubbles combined. The bust at this point is inevitable and imminent – the timeframes would be a few months and not a few years.

The current rate of 4.25% to 4.5% is way too low to contain price inflation meaningfully. The National debt is increasing at an even higher pace than before, and monetary inflation is a natural outcome, indicating that the rates are very accommodative.

For more than 50 months in a row, the core inflation rate – the Fed’s preferred measure – has been above the target 2%. The June 2025 number was 2.82% and under normal conditions, the US Fed would have aggressively hiked the rates. The only reason why they do not do so is “Fiscal Dominance”.

In effect [what] they are doing is the equivalent of putting the National Debt on an Adjustable Rate Mortgage System (ARMS)

Trump is unwittingly setting himself up to be the fall guy for what has essentially been the blunders of the US Federal Reserve.

It would be uncharacteristic of the Fed not to utilize the opportunity and pass the buck, as it has almost always done.

What about the supposed critical issue of the Fed’s Independence?
Truth to be told, the independence of the Free World’s monetary system was eliminated in 1913 with the formation of the Federal Reserve.
The Independence of the Fed was effectively abolished in 1971 when Nixon closed the Gold Window.

Sigh …