The Federal Reserve has long been the target of conspiracy theorists.

Depending on who you ask they're either a quasi-governmental organization or they aren't the government at all. Meanwhile, the Greenspan era taught everyone that six words from the Fed chairman could crash the economy faster than a Trumptweet.

Last time we were in a pickle, it was a bunch of rich dudes huddled in a conference room over the weekend trying to figure out what to do with the economy. The difference then was Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke had half a clue... and Ben Bernanke was scared to death of the Great Depression. I haven't heard much criticism of Jay Powell involving incompetence or fecklessness but a lot of the bitching about him centers on how he's bending to Trump's will. If he were more independent, he probably would have let a recession happen a year ago; he's one of those "recessions are a natural part of the business cycle" guys. His perspective might well be that it's going to come down eventually and the longer you prop it up the harder it's gonna crash. And now that he can show that he's been sort of resisting Trump's insistence that the economy can fly forever, he has moral cover for things not working out.

I dunno.