Commentary March approaches, the month that the Federal Reserve (Fed) promised to show its anti-inflation hand. It will, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has announced, cease its quantitative easing and begin to raise interest rates. Unless favored heavily by Lady Luck, whatever steps the Fed takes will bring market and economic pain and, in time, probably recession. It was hopes of good luck that informed Powell’s—and the White House’s—pronouncements through most of last year when they claimed repeatedly that price pressures would pass speedily without the need for a policy response because, officials insisted, the problems were merely the transitory product of a post-pandemic demand surge and pandemic-induced supply chain problems. Though this take could still be true, it is highly unlikely on several counts. Even the authorities in Washington have now abandoned the fiction. Any perspective on economic history always argued against Washington’s happy take on these matters. As this …