Comment by pjc50

> is to ask them what they think the correct value should be

This is Hacker News, we should understand what a PID controller is.

The economy is the "plant". The variable of interest, inflation, is the output of the plant. The government interest rate is the input. As inflation varies around the target FOMC rate, the Fed adjusts the rate. If inflation is over 2%, we should expect rate hikes, regardless of what the current rate is.

This is a fairly simple and very effective system that has worked in most Western countries and the Eurozone since the 90s.

However, note that the "recession" claim is also partly correct: the reason rate hikes work to reduce inflation is that they move the economy growth rate down, in the direction of (but not necessarily into!) recession.