Just Where Was All This ‘Free Money’ the Pundits Keep Telling Us About?
Commentary
In his weekly Wall Street Journal column from last week, the great Daniel Henninger commented that “For 10 years money was virtually free.” Henninger was talking about the years before Fed Chairman Jerome Powell supposedly acted like an adult, only to institute “real-world interest rates.”
Henninger’s comment about “virtually free” money didn’t read right mainly because it ran, and runs so counter to how incredibly difficult it is for all businesses of all stripes to secure funding regardless of what the Fed is doing. Think Uber. It floated its shares to the public in 2019, but it opened its doors in 2009 only to quickly evolve into one of Silicon Valley’s most talked about “unicorns.” Uber was undoubtedly Silicon Valley’s most talked about company at the same time that Henninger indicates money was near costless. Apparently Uber didn’t get the memo….