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, March 20th, and today we are talking about Fed Day.

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slash breakdown pod. All right, friends, well, for most of the past year, Fed meetings have been something of a

non-event. Rates have largely been on hold, and the three rate cuts that we did have were more

about adjusting to cooling inflation than about any setting of new monetary policy.

There is always something to talk about, of course, but the Fed has been in wait and C mode,

while they hope that inflation comes down and nothing breaks in the labor market. Generally, the story has been a lack

of response to fluctuations in the data, as Chair Powell sits comfortably in his steady-as-she-goes

mode. And although rates were held steady at 4.5% yesterday, this was anything but a sleepy Fed meeting.

Trump's ever-changing tariff policy,

a growth scare, a huge drop in consumer sentiment, and a stock market drawdown are all calling

for a monetary policy reaction. The only problem is that these catalysts are all pointing

in different directions. And this, friends, was the theme of the Fed meeting, uncertainty.

It was clear even before Powell stepped up to the podium

when the Fed issued their statement. They scratched out a sentence about risks to inflation and

unemployment being equally balanced. In its place, the committee simply said,

uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased. Once Powell took the stage, he hammered

this point home. He uttered the phrase, uncertainty is remarkably high numerous times throughout the press conference. The Fed seems to

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