Recently, when Powell was asked whether liquidity tightening counts as unintended harm, he frankly admitted that it is indeed a side effect of high interest rates, but there's no way around it—out-of-control inflation is more deadly. The Federal Reserve's current goal is to first bring inflation under control, as the US economy's fundamentals can still support it. The underlying message is clear: short-term pain is tolerable, and monetary policy will not easily shift direction.