The Federal Reserve released minutes from its October meeting Wednesday, and one thing noted Fed critic Jim Grant has noticed is the central bank's increasing reference to the rest of the world over the past several months.
To Grant, the founder and editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, that's a telling sign.
"I think the Fed is telling us that it is contemplating falling back on world difficulties are a reason or pretext not to be so aggressive next year," he said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell."
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The Fed is expected to raise interest rates sometime next year.
While the United States has ended its bond-buying program, places like Japan and Europe have ramped up their economic stimulus packages. Grant called such quantitative easing a "virus of radical, monetary intervention" that has now become "body politic."
With Fed intervention becoming the norm, one of the things on the back of the market's mind is what the central bank will do next time.
"There will be a bear market, there will be a recession. When, we don't know. But what do they do in response? Not nothing," Grant said.
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He noted that every time the central bank has intervened since the early '90s "it has been louder, higher, heavier handed."