Don’t Look Back in Anger — Jerome Powell

🎸 Don’t Look Back in Anger — Jerome Powell’s Pivot Ballad

Subtitle: A Fed Chair’s Lament in the Key of Regret

Intro: Leadership flows best when it’s adaptive, intuitive, and attuned to the moment — like water finding its path or music responding to the beat. But what happens when the conductor of monetary policy misses the rhythm? When the flow is dammed by fear, and the melody of the market is drowned out by models?

This satirical rewrite of Don’t Look Back in Anger imagines Jerome Powell as a reluctant frontman, finally pivoting to cut rates after realizing that Donald Trump may have been right all along — that the Fed was behind the curve, too focused on inflation fears from tariffs, and too slow to recognize a weakening labor market revealed by massive data revisions.

🎶 Verse 1

Slip inside the Fed’s mind
Just try to find the signs
You said tariffs would ignite inflation
But the jobs were fading fast
Revisions came at last
And now the data shows stagnation

🎶 Pre-Chorus

So I start to pivot slow
Though I swore I wouldn’t go
Back to easing, back to doves
But the curve’s de-inverted, no more tough love

🎶 Chorus

So, Jerome, don’t look back in anger
I heard Trump say
You were behind the curve
And now you’ve got to pay
The price of waiting too long
To cut and save the day
So don’t look back in anger
Powell, don’t delay

🎶 Verse 2

The Phillips curve was dead
But still lived in your head
While wages stalled and layoffs grew
You feared a price surge tide
But demand had already died
And now the bond market’s calling you

🎶 Bridge

And so, the pressers roll
With questions you can’t control
“Did you miss the signs again?”
“Was Trump right back then?”

🎶 Final Chorus

So, Jerome, don’t look back in anger
I heard Trump say
You were behind the curve
And now you’ve got to pay
The price of waiting too long
To cut and save the day
So don’t look back in anger
Powell, don’t delay

Outro Commentary:
Leadership, like music, demands improvisation. And sometimes, even the most powerful conductor must admit they missed the beat. As Powell pivots, the lesson is clear: listen to the rhythm of the real economy — not just the sheet music of theory.

I just couldn’t resist having this post combine two of my favorite subjects, great music lyrics, especially Oasis ones given I’m still on a post-concert high after having just seen them at the Rose Bowl, and interest rates. We now have the first of what will almost be assuredly three cuts by the end of the year. The market is currently pricing in a 90% chance of a 25 basis point cut in October and 76% for another 25 basis points in December.

Jerome Powell’s predicament is a good lesson in the importance of humility, flexible thinking, and not holding a grudge. We should all learn to never look back in anger and do our best to look forward with optimism, hope, and tackling whatever comes at us with reason, courage, and grace.