Jeff Cox, finance editor at CNBC.com, joins Real Vision senior editor Ash Bennington to demystify the often opaque activities of the Federal Reserve. Cox shares his in-depth knowledge on the Fed’s plumbing to shine light on how factors such quantitative easing and interest rate cuts impact the real economy as well as financial markets. Cox describes how the Fed’s reliance on the Phillips curve, a theory which may be outdated, led the central bank to chronically undershoot inflation over the past decade—as a result, the Fed is now willing to let inflation “run hot,” purchasing assets and suppressing rates in an unprecedented manner. Lastly, Cox shares his views on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the growing debt levels of the U.S. government. Filmed on January 7, 2020. Key learnings: The commitment of the Federal Reserve to supply liquidity to the economy is stronger than ever. The fact that the Fed’s facilities are more effective at inflating financial assets than they are at supporting the real economy is not something that its leadership is sufficiently concerned about to bring about any meaningful change in policy.