>Here, to make way for more inflation-spurring policies, I imagine Yellen has to fall on the sword for the current state of inflation, even though she was the f

>Here, to make way for more inflation-spurring policies, I imagine Yellen has to fall on the sword for the current state of inflation, even though she was the former Fed Chair, not the current one, and the current Fed Chair (Trump-appointed/Biden-Reappointed), whose independence Biden is supposedly respecting, Jerome Powell, is the one publicly branded with the "transitory" remark. I think that's Biden trying to give space to Powell to make it that much easier for his Fed to continue their 180-degree flip on whether to use their tools to fight inflation by cooling the economy. So far, Powell is publicly declaring that he's channeling the Carter-appointed Fed Chair Paul Volcker, who raised interest rates dramatically and beat back inflation in the early 80s. Biden is giving Powell room to Volckerize, and my bet is Biden hopes Powell will take his final form a month or two after the midterms, but not before. But all of this is just absurd theatre that's attempting to thread an unthreadable needle: the Fed helped to cause this bubble, and it needs to be reformed. >If you've been following Powell's remarks over the last few months, he has moved from inflation is transitory TO it's time to increase the fed funds rate to hem in the economy through a "soft" landing TO it may not be a soft landing, but the landing will be "soft-ish." Why is Yellen the one to take the blame for that? She shouldn't. But what Biden needs Powell's Fed to do is continue to increase that rate by 50 basis point at each of the upcoming meetings, clear the Mortgage Backed Securities off its balance sheet, and then after the midterms amp the rate up ASAP by 75 basis points at a click or more, so that we can start that recession quickly then hopefully find our way toward something Biden can call a "recovery" by the time 2024 elections roll around. And the Fed isn't going to do that if there's overt pressure from the administration. This is an excellent possible observation of a strategy we may be watching. To add to your point, without some Volcker-level hikes we won't be able to escape this inflation. I'm a broken record about this (if you check my comment history haha), but the aging demographics of advanced economies (china is also an advanced economy!) guarantee that we will have less hands able to feed the hungry mouths out in the world. Prices are guaranteed to rise. Perhaps we'll have so many wealthy retired people chasing so few goods that we'll need hikes so large that they will have to crush asset values altogether to keep prices as they are today. No matter what, similar to you, I don't see the fed's independence surviving the decade.