Justin Wolfers

Now, you might say, why does that matter?

Well, if the Federal Reserve can be independent and be left alone to do its job, it can more effectively bring inflation down.

And if you undermine it, you lead people to believe that inflation might be higher in the future.

And that in itself is enough to actually cause inflation.

And that, by the way, also raises interest rates.

And there goes your mortgage payment up, up, up.

And so pretty much everything this bloke has done has ended up being something that would raise prices rather than lowering them.

So one way we could do that is we could just ask typical Americans.

And so that's what's called a measure of consumer confidence.

In fact, my university, the University of Michigan surveys hundreds of people every month asking them, how do you feel about the future of the economy?

Consumer confidence right now is at the lowest level it's ever been.

Worse, I mean, actually, Zach, it's stunning because I want you to think about how bad things have been at certain moments.

Do you remember the terror of 2000?

Sorry, 2020?

Oh, yeah.

Like we're sitting at home, we can't do work, and we don't know if this virus is ever going to go away.

And we're more miserable.

And I'm old enough to remember when Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering a financial crisis that meant we didn't know if we'd wake up and have a banking system.

And people feel more miserable.

Let's stick with Rich's comment for a moment.