On Wednesday, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting showed central bankers are frustrated by the lack of progress on inflation. After several months of official inflation readings coming in hotter than expected, the Fed has been forced to back off on previous plans to ease multiple times throughout the year. Remarks by Fed policymakers were widely interpreted as hawkish, with some even suggesting that rate hikes might be necessary.
Many politicians apparently like the idea of one day replacing paper notes and physical coins with a digital dollar. It could enable the IRS to track just about every transaction in the whole economy. That, of course, brings with it the prospect of more tax revenue for the government. It also brings with it grave privacy concerns and the risk of authoritarian controls over what people are allowed to purchase using their digital wallets.