The Fed's Silent Balance Sheet Squeeze

The Federal Reserve Podcast with Fexingo: Interest Rates, FOMC Meetings, and Monetary Policy · Oct 2, 2026 · 10m · transcript

With the September jobs report showing only twenty-nine thousand new roles and unemployment ticking to four point two percent, the Federal Reserve faces a complex dilemma. While core inflation has cooled to three percent on the PCE gauge, the labor market is fracturing in unexpected ways, particularly among male workers. Lucas and Luna explore how the Fed’s silent balance sheet reduction is quietly tightening financial conditions even as official rates hold steady at three point seven five percent. We dig into why the bond market’s reaction to Treasury yields matters more than the headline…