We're reaping the benefits of a weak Fed Chairman who wanted to suck up to his boss more than he wanted to fix the economy.

What Powell and the Fed governors should have done was crank rates up 2-3 points more (and maybe higher than that) than they did a la Paul Volcker in the 1980s. Volcker/Reagan absolutely baked every last dram of the 1970's inflation out of the economy but Powell's Fed didn't do that: they didn't want to tank the job market right before Biden's election so they made almost the worst possible move: they raised rates up just enough to take the edge off of inflation but not eliminate it entirely.

Of course, thanks to decades of piss-poor fiscal policy the US likely CAN'T raise rates much higher than that without making government debt service impossible. We're now at a point where one of the main weapons in the quiver can't be used because of it. Thanks, Swamp Rats.