In 2022, the Federal Reserve made history, almost surely launching hundreds of academic papers, dissertations and tell-all tomes to occupy interest for years to come. For most central bankers, attention is the worst of outcomes. Rather, most believe their ambition should be to follow John Maynard Keynes’s advice and “manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people, on the level with dentists.”
The Fed only garners such attention making or correcting a major mistake—and there was a bit of both this year. Inflation was allowed to hit a 40-year high. Monetary policy had to pivot forcefully to raise the target range for the overnight rate to 4.25% to 4.5% in 2022, including four 0.75-percentage-point installments.
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