Country-singing economist drops new music video

What we're hearing: "The Fed is watching the market/the market's watching back in return," Hazard croons on the track.

• "Fundamentals are in tatters, I'm not sure it even matters."
• "What companies possess or what they earn."

Where it stands: Hazard, aka investment manager Jon Shayne, says the uncertainty and anger surrounding the pandemic and the election caused him to hold off on releasing the song earlier.

• "Things are somewhat more normal now," he tells Axios.
• "Fed officials were talking last week about having noticed the sharp increase in Treasury yields. So it's a decent time...and people maybe have mental space for it now that they wouldn't have had from September of last year through January of this year."

Between the lines: The song reflects the worries Merle Hazard shares with many investors about creeping inflation and the zero-interest-rate environment that was expected to be temporary and has instead become a long-term feature of investing.

• "Rates being at zero is like gravity having been repealed," he says. "And I don't think interest rates can stay this low forever. When they go up, asset prices, not just equities but real estate, too, likely will come down.

• "When will this happen? I don't know, which is why, five years ago this week, I released a song titled, "How Long (Will Interest Rates Stay Low)?"

The bottom line: "I like poking fun at the Fed in my songs, but actually, I respect them and think they have a nearly impossible job," Hazard says.