Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, July 31st, and today we are talking about Fed Day. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link of the show notes or go to bit.com slash breakdown pod. All right, friends, Fed Day has been, if we are being honest, a little bit of a quiet occasion

so far this year.

The FOMC has been on hold for each of the four meetings adopting a wait and see approach to

navigating the new administration's economic policy.

This week's decision was just as boring.

Rates remained unchanged at 4.5 percent, and the explanation

was still uncertainty around tariff inflation and economic conditions. But everything

surrounding the decision was packed with drama, as Powell took a stand against the administration,

the market, and even his own board of governors. Of course, the drama around this FOMC meeting

got started early, when the president

stopped in at the Fed building to scrutinize multi-billion dollar renovations. Trump has been grilling Powell

and the Fed for months in the press, but it was an entirely different thing for it to be happening

face to face. The image of the president standing over the Fed chair and questioning the renovation

budget was a stark reminder that central bank independence can't be taken for granted. It was also some of the absolute best meme template

fodder we've had in a very long time. Now, Powell held his own saying that Trump's numbers were

incorrect, but that memeable image was absolutely etched on the minds of traders heading into the

meeting. While the markets didn't like the look of the squabbling between the administration and the Fed, they had a very simple wish for this week's press conference.

Rate cuts were completely off the table for June, but at around 50-50 for September.

Many analysts and traders were looking Powell to ratify that cuts were on the table for September,

but he refused to do so. It wasn't even so much about wanting

...