Stock markets are reeling as the Federal Reserve and its central bank counterparts clammer to get runaway inflation under control through a series of steep interest rate hikes. Where this ends, no one knows. But it's no mystery where this inflation began: The Federal Reserve.

Back in early 2020, talk of an imminent shutdown of the global economy briefly sent the stock market into freefall. The Federal Reserve headed off this market downturn with a series of rapid rate cuts, bringing the federal funds rate to near zero by the end of March 2020.