How Realistic Is Getting Inflation Back to Near 2%?

A lot of wise souls think that goal is achievable—despite the heavy weather blocking the way.

Is Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell 2022’s Don Quixote? Is his fondest desire, to restore inflation growth to a modest 2% in the near term, an impossible dream?

The worst inflation in four decades has prompted Powell to tighten monetary policy with the goal of returning inflation to around that storied 2%, its level before it began to climb last year. As of June, the Consumer Price Index hit 9.1% annually. Consumers, according to a University of Michigan survey, reckon that the CPI will fall, albeit only to 5.2% for the coming year.