Because the Fed is not bound to 2% by its mandate, like the ECB is, they're free to alter that number as they see fit. Typically, during recession, you'll targe

Because the Fed is not bound to 2% by its mandate, like the ECB is, they're free to alter that number as they see fit. Typically, during recession, you'll target a bit lower of inflation so as to stay the purchasing power of the unemployed's savings. The last thing you want to do is to have inflation take off on somebody who's living off of savings. Even to get to 1.5, they needed to do some QE, so it's not all rainbows and sparkles. Inflation's a difficult beast to tame, but they at least have more influence over that than, say, GDP.