The Federal Reserve just fractured in three directions simultaneously.
Three members dissented. One demanded deeper cuts. Two demanded no cuts at all.
This is not disagreement over pace. This is disagreement over reality itself.
The numbers tell a story the headlines missed:
9-3 vote. The most divided Fed since 2019.
Governor Stephen Miran, Trump's appointee still holding his White House job on unpaid leave, voted for 50 basis points. Hours earlier, Kevin Hassett, the frontrunner to replace Powell in May, publicly said he would do the same.
Meanwhile, two regional bank presidents, including former dove Austan Goolsbee, voted for no cut whatsoever. A dove turning hawk is the canary in the coal mine.
Why?
The 43 day government shutdown wiped October's economic data from existence. The unemployment rate for October 2025 will never be known. Powell admitted the Fed is "driving in the fog."
Yet they cut anyway. And simultaneously announced $40 billion per month in Treasury purchases. They call it "Reserve Management." Not QE. Inflation sits 45% above target.
Easing and tightening. Cutting and warning. Expanding the balance sheet while projecting a hawkish pause.
This is not monetary policy. This is managed contradiction.
Powell's term ends May 15, 2026. The succession battle is already live. The December vote was a preview of the war to come.
The institution that stabilizes the world's reserve currency cannot agree on what danger looks like, which direction it is coming from, or which tool to use against it.
For eighty years, markets priced Fed consensus. That assumption died yesterday.
