The fed is embarrassingly ignorant with regards to the causes of economic growth. For economic growth to occur consumers need disposable income. in order for consumers to have disposable income the rate of change of income must be greater than the rate of change of expenses. For a large portion of the population expenses are increasing and income is flat or decreasing. The fed thinks that fudging inflation and employment numbers will some how cause consumers to have more real dollars at the end of the month. Some of the stats that the government puts out leads me to believe that they are drinking there own kool-aid.