Michael Hiltzik: A panicky Federal Reserve is driving us into an unnecessary recession

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell snatched the cookie jar out of the stock market's hands on Dec. 14, when he followed up an announcement of a dovish half-point interest rate increase with a warning that the Fed didn't think it had wrung enough inflation out of the economy and would keep raising rates "for some time."

The stock market, which had been riding on a sugar high for a week — with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining nearly 900 points, or nearly 3% — promptly rolled over and played dead.

Since Powell's statement, the Dow has lost more than 1,400 points, or about 4.1%.

The stock market's reaction isn't the only indication that the Federal Reserve is out of step with economic trends — indeed, that it has been trying to muscle inflation to the ground without fully recognizing, or at least acknowledging, that the recent bout of inflation doesn't resemble past instances in its causes at all.

Nor does the