BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA – We went to dinner last night at a little neighborhood restaurant in Palermo Soho.

It was already crowded when we arrived after 9 p.m., with a warm buzz of conversation.

But scarcely had we been there 10 minutes when the diners fell silent.

A woman at the table next to us was choking. She stood up, bent over… pointing to her throat and gagging.

Her companions stood up. The waiter rushed over. But no one seemed to know what to do. They held her arm. They patted her back. But she was still gagging and seemed to be ready to pass out.

What to do?

We wrapped our arms under her ribs. We have never actually seen the Heimlich maneuver performed… and had heard that it doesn’t work. But time was running out.

We formed a fist and jerked it up under her ribs.

Miracle! She spat out a piece of meat… stood up… and thanked all around her.

Then we all sat down and gradually, the conversation resumed.

No More Free Money

Meanwhile back in the markets… yesterday, Jerome Powell spoke to Congress for the first time as head of the Fed.

And he spooked investors by hinting that interest rates might be on the rise faster than expected.

Reuters was on the case:

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell pledged to balance the risk of an overheating economy and the need to keep growth on track in his prepared testimony. But Powell’s remark that inflation has strengthened since December sent yields higher and stocks lower.

The [yield on the] 10-year U.S. Treasury, the global benchmark for commercial lending, jumped past 2.9%, and equity markets in Europe and Wall Street turned south, with MSCI’s key index of global equity performance falling 0.4%.

The three major indices on Wall Street fell.

Yes, Dear Reader, the Fed giveth. And the Fed taketh away.

Ever since Alan Greenspan slashed interest rates in response to the 1987 stock market crash, we’ve been watching the Fed give what appeared to be free money to the financial economy.