Jerome Powell Is Keanu Reeves in ‘Speed,’ and Investors Want Off the Bus

Wracked by the losses in stocks and bonds triggered by the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation, investors want the struggle to end, the MLIV Pulse survey of 2,224 Bloomberg News readers shows.

The potential outcome of the Fed’s attempt to limit price increases is often described as a soft or hard landing, depending on how much harm it will cause to the U.S. economy. But about a quarter of survey participants said the metaphor of an aircraft coming down isn’t good enough, and they suggested other phrases. One offered a fairly dramatic take on Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard, who was the Fed’s vice chair before she left to become President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser.

Powell and Brainard are “like Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock trying to bring the bus under control,’’ the respondent said, drawing an analogy with the action thriller “Speed” about a bus carrying a terrorist-planted bomb that is about to explode. “Brainard/Bullock just got off.”

A balloon was the most popular comparison, suggesting economic policymakers have less control than the atmosphere. Others likened recent market swings to a helicopter “hovering yards above the pad, rising and dropping incrementally with the daily data” or “a confused teenager bouncing all over the place but going nowhere.”

Some more optimistic respondents predict “the economy stabilizes” or at least see it reaching a “steady state.”

MLIV Pulse is a weekly survey of Bloomberg News readers on the terminal and online, conducted by Bloomberg’s Markets Live team, which also runs a 24/7 MLIV blog on the terminal. This week, the MLIV Pulse survey examines active versus passive investing. Is the growth of passive management a bubble? Click here to share your views.

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