Fed Chair Powell has emphasized that inflation is too high, and that doing too little could lead to entrenched inflation and require monetary policy to wring more persistent inflation from the economy at a high cost to employment.

The central bank’s 2% inflation objective influences people’s expectations, which determines inflation.

Consumers worry about inflation’s bite and don’t think Powell will lower it.

The Federal Reserve switched from a hard 2% inflation target to an average 2% in 2020, but critics argue that changing the objective would damage the Fed’s credibility and undermine the self-reinforcing cycle of setting pricing expectations.

Powell and Co. must sell the 2% inflation objective as inflation depends on expectations and consumer expectations can change as temporary, excessive inflation hardens.