People in Washington, compared to the private sector, have NO CLUE how economics works. My basic understanding of economics (id even call it somewhat advanced) can prove the federal reserve's policies are having the opposite effect of what they intend. We just learned this and have been doing it for weeks in my one macroeconomics course. If a couple hundred students can prove with simple math what policies would work best for the fed, and that their current policies are backfiring and even they can't see that, Id say, ya we actually do understand it better than them.