"There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse in 11 days."

At some point ahead, if the Fed announces QE tapering at the September FOMC meeting --despite an evident economic slowdown, no fiscal stimulus, and slowdown and 'reforms' in China-- then the above words may come from the lips of Fed Chair Powell. At least we can assume that would be the case based on the market reaction to that implied policy path in the Fed minutes, as covered by Philip Marey here. It wasn't epic selling all over: but any equity selling is a defeat for Fed, and overall it was the equivalent of a small Afghan provincial capital flipping to the Taliban without a shot being fired by the well-stocked local 'army'. Both nothingburger and harbinger.

Does the Fed have the intelligence to prevent such a collapse from happening? When one sees in the minutes that "some participants raised the possibility of imbalances arising from a protracted period of low interest rates and widely increased asset prices" one thinks perhaps not. Do those in DC really not know what they have wrought? Do those on the ground really not transmit the actual landscape upwards to the Beltway?

While the Fed were writing this, food prices were rising sharply. Property prices were rising sharply. And in 'crypto province', NFTs of a penguin were being bought on a Monday for $4K and sold on a Tuesday for $7K; "cute, sassy" Ethereum Kitty images were being bid at up to $4K each; and Christies was auctioning NFTs, as Old Money finds it can't resist so much very new. In short, an entire multi-trillion --dollar-- industry and social movement is creating massive, instant, vapid 'wealth' via e-printing (for peanuts) and e-trading (for huge profit, lottery style) the equivalent of Panini stickers: except there are Anini, Banini, Canini, Danini, etc., all the way to infinity.