To the Editor: A free market of millions of market actors will always price interest rates more efficiently than 12 Federal Open Market Committee members (" Kevin Warsh Is Ready to Fix the Fed. Inflation Is Standing in the Way," Cover Story, April 24). It will be interesting to see whether the Federal Reserve shrinks the balance sheet further and allows price discovery to take hold of the long-duration bonds. Defining inflation as the personal consumption expenditures price index has also allowed malinvestment of capital to flourish. Inflation has more often tended to manifest in asset prices than consumer prices over the past 30 years. Without Congress getting serious about cutting waste and cutting real spending, any attempt to beat inflation will prove useless.

Richard Saler On Barrons.com

CEOs Earn Their Pay

To the Editor: For context on CEO salaries (" The Highest-Paid CEO Is a Furniture Salesman," Up & Down Wall Street, April 23): The top 76 Major League Baseball players each make over $20 million, with Juan Soto (at $62 million) leading the pack (with three home runs and eight RBIs for the hapless Mets). The top 50 National Basketball Association players average over $33 million, with the Warriors' Steph Curry (at $60 million) the highest-paid -- on a team that missed the playoffs.

Lawrence Vocke Napoleon, Ohio

Retirement Caveat

To the Editor: The 30-year period for someone retiring in 1929 continued well after World War II on the winning side of a country not ravaged by war (" The Worst Year to Retire Wasn't 1929. The Creator of the 4% Retirement Rule Says It Was 1968," Retirement, April 19). The U.S. rebuilt much of the world then, with little competition at the outset. In fact, it is often stated that American production for WWII is what brought the U.S. out of the Great Depression. It's also when the U.S. dollar became the world's currency, replacing the British pound. These were unique circumstances compared with 1968 and 2000, and very unlikely to repeat again.

Bruce Musler On Barrons.com

Spiraling Debt

To the Editor: Casey Burgat's Other Voices column is too optimistic (" Congress Is Broken. Investors Are Starting to Notice," April 24). Burgat believes that the investor community is a lot more tolerant of the present situation than it will eventually prove to be. The inability to come to grips with a spiraling budget deficit is all too evident. There is simply no motivation to do otherwise. Anyone who has even superficial familiarity with historical precedents knows that a tipping point will occur when the real burden of the debt is simply too high to overlook by even the most nonchalant.

Juan M. Bracete Apollo Beach, Fla.

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May 01, 2026 18:15 ET (22:15 GMT)

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