Powell’s word soup leaves Fed watchers hungry for more

Plus: Human genomes, lithium drama and more. Bloomberg This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a word-soup formulation of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - The [Fed pause](is no party. - The [human genome]( is a mystery. - [Online education]( gets a shake-up. - [Lithium]( is the lifeblood of EVs. A Hike to End All Hikes Is [this]( it? Have we reached [the end]( of the [Hot Ones episode](?? After 14 months of hiking, can we finally take a freaking water break??? The Federal Reserve is seemingly saying yes, we can sip the sweet nectar from our Hydro Flasks in peace: Yesterday, Jonathan Levin gave us a little tutorial on [how to distinguish the hawks from the doves](. In March, the FOMC statement included this Very Important Sentence: “The Committee anticipates that some additional policy firming may be appropriate,” which is a fancy way of saying yeah, we’re probably gonna do another one of these rate hike thingamajigs in May. This time around, the Fed omitted that language and replaced it with what Jonathan calls [a “word-soup formulation” of Fedspeak](. It reads: “The Committee will closely monitor incoming information and assess the implications for monetary policy,” which basically amounts “to a half-hearted admission that the elusive ‘pause’ has finally (probably) arrived,” he writes. To a normal person, the difference is infinitesimal. But for [a Fed watcher](, this is [Super Bowl Sunday-type stuff](: The devil is in the details. Source: [The Transcript]( The Bloomberg editorial board says the Fed’s decision to [raise interest rates by 25 basis points]( was a wise one. Without an additional hike, [we’d quickly approach stagflation territory]( (AKA the 7th circle of financial hell). Because the decision itself was to be expected, all eyes were on Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference, where he to tiptoed ([rather successfully]() around the topic of future rate cuts: “We feel like we’re getting closer and maybe even there.” For many months, the central bank has dug itself and the economy into a hole “because of earlier failures in analysis, forecasts, actions and communication,” Mohamed El-Erian writes, arguing that [the Fed needs to shift the way it thinks about rates]( entirely. Pause or no pause, John Authers says [the regional banking crisis will continue to pose a significant challenge]( for the central bank maestro, who, in the presser, admitted to having “a few” regrets. On top of that, Powell was asked to comment on [the debt ceiling]( — a major concern for politicians and investors alike: “We shouldn’t even be talking about a world in which the US doesn’t pay its bills,” Powell remarked. We might have finished the wings, but the [meat sweats]( are just beginning. Zootopia Walked so Zoonomia Could Run Know-it-alls are a particular breed of human. They playfully chide you for not realizing until this week that salt grinders have [two settings](. They have very specific feelings about [Alternate Side Parking](. And at trivia night, they even claim to know whether Madonna was actually down on her knees at the time of writing “[Like a Prayer](.” But here’s the thing about know-it-alls: There’s no way they can know everything because, as a collective society, we know precious little about ourselves. Consider the human genome. You could [23andMe]( the heck out of your DNA and still be completely clueless: Scientists “now have a [pretty good understanding]( of the regions that encode for proteins, but that accounts for less than 2% of our DNA. It’s like being able to read only a few words on a page full of text.” That’s right: The human genome is more opaque than the [Mueller report](. And as we all know, that thing was redacted to high heaven. Basically a human genome. Source: Bloomberg For far too long, humans have been looking inward for clues about our genetic code, Lisa Jarvis writes. Instead of being sooo obsessed with ourselves, maybe we should pay a little more attention to our anthropomorphic cousins: mammals. Over the past decade, 100 scientists embarked on a journey they call “[Zoonomia](” to sequence the genomes of 239 animals (everything from bats to cheetahs to hippos — and one human, for kicks and giggles). “This new collection of mammal genomes can help us home in on some of the more mysterious parts of our DNA,” Lisa explains, also noting that the evolution of animal genomes is far more extensive than our own, which have only been around for about 200,000 years. In reality, humans are mere crumbs in the muffin of history — which is one thing that know-it-alls will never admit. Read [the whole thing.]( Telltale Charts The New York Times has a hair-raising piece today about how [US history scores for 8th graders]( are tanking. Around 40% of students scored “below basic” in 2022 — a substantial decline from years prior. So perhaps it’s good that with the advent of ChatGPT, kids have been turning to automation to help them keep up in the classroom. Tim Culpan says Chegg, an online learning platform that gained traction during the pandemic, “saw a significant spike in student interest in ChatGPT” in March. But [accuracy]( is not a chatbot’s forte. Despite that fact, [Chegg is hoping it can harness OpenAI’s software]( to help more students ace their [history test](. A lot of know-it-alls will tell you that the [original recipe]( for Coca-Cola had cocaine in it. But what they might not mention is [the original recipe]( for 7-Up, which had lithium in it. Yeah, the same lithium we use for electric car batteries. David Fickling says that production of the crucial ingredient must increase drastically in order to keep up with the demand for EVs. [Chile wants to have more oversight over the process](, which is spooking some investors who get the ick from nationalization. But David says they need not fear a government takeover: Chile’s most important export, [copper](, has been nationalized to great success. Further Reading Carl Icahn might drink shark blood for breakfast, but [a short seller’s eating him]( for lunch. — Ed Hammond You don’t want to know [how banks make their sausage](. (Reader, it’s messy.) — Marc Rubinstein [The Chinese economy]( is looking haggard, and it’s not cute. — Dan Moss [The sea]( is a great place to store carbon, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. — Lara Williams The American [war machine]( is running out of gas. — Hal Brands [Turkey’s election]( is tight. What happens if Erdogan loses? — Bobby Ghosh Texas wants nothing more than to declare [the death of renewables](. — Liam Denning Everything you need to know about the hottest new hellsite, [Bluesky](. — Dave Lee A crusty old Prince will soon become [a King](. — Max Hastings ICYMI The first [RSV vaccine](. Outrage over [Jordan Neely’s death](. Virginia’s [out-of-control]( teen driver. New Yorkers battle [rent hikes](. Kickers correct way [to pop a pill](. [Ten-year-olds]( worked at a McDonald’s. (h/t Jhodie Williams) [Tony Hawk]( did the Wes Anderson trend. Someone ate the [$120,000 banana](. Notes: Please send expensive bananas and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](