The fed has a dual mandate (Powell only repeats this 20-30 times during each press conference). Stable prices (2% inflation) and maximum employment. That dual

The fed has a dual mandate (Powell only repeats this 20-30 times during each press conference). Stable prices (2% inflation) and maximum employment. That dual mandate is what dictates policy. The recent string of rate hikes are not arbitrary, they are because of the surge in inflation flowing the extreme policies the fed took on the other end when unemployment was high during the pandemic. If anything the case to be made is that the fed went overboard with its QE during the pandemic, but even then its a bit of "hindsight is 20/20". I think everyone can agree that had this pandemic struck in 2000, even 2010 instead of 2020, the economic impact would have been dramatically greater than it was.