By now, everybody on the planet knows that “higher for longer” remains the Fed’s primary battle cry. We also know that Jay Powell’s merry band of central bankers will be “data dependent” when it comes to charting their next move. “Stay the course,” they say. And “we are committed to getting inflation back down to the target of 2%” remains a top party line cited by FOMC members.
With jobs aplenty and the U.S. economy doing just fine, thank you, it’s been easy for the Fed to stick to their guns. This despite the fact that the country’s central bankers have never before tried to implement their relatively newly minted “target” for inflation from this direction.
Lest we forget, although there was some behind-the-scenes talk going back to 1996, the Fed’s 2% inflation target wasn’t made official until 2012. History shows that Powell’s crew tried everything they could think of to get…
