Pity the poor members of the Federal Open Market Committee! These Federal Reserve Board Governors and Federal Reserve Bank Presidents all know in their hearts, for sure, each one, that they do not and cannot know the financial and economic future—that they do not and cannot know, among other things, how bad the current hot inflation is going to get, or how long it will last.
Yet they are forced to make forecasts and statements published all over the world about things they cannot know. Their statements move markets and influence behavior, so they have to guess and worry about not only about what will happen, but about what others will do based on what they say. They cannot know for sure what the results of their own actions will be, or what actions others will take, no matter how sincerely they try to make their best guesses. And of course, they have to worry about what the politicians will say or demand.
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