>>60842981
2020 was special circumstances. the lockdown in china was extremely significant, would have caused major disruptions. that's why we locked down our country, printed a bunch of money, and let in a ton of immigrants. powell's hands were tied, as were many politicians, dramatic measures had to be taken to prevent a major economic meltdown and they were. they probably went overboard, but the economy still had not recovered from the 2009 collapse and it's a sensitive time with boomers retiring and little but their houses as savings. they wanted to preserve the status quo as much as possible. it wasn't all stupidity and malice, and they had to dance along with china to prevent outraging them as well. very difficult period and explains our new hostility towards china, attempts to decouple economies.
also the fed isn't a domestic institution, it's a european one. europeans buy most of our bonds, they are our major creditors, the fed protects the interests of our creditors first, just because it's not in their mandate does not mean it's not so.