Even after admitting that they got their inflation forecasts wrong last year, central banks have continued to err in their policy guidance, endangering their credibility, roiling markets, and undermining the pandemic recovery.

The Federal Reserve is now expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points on Wednesday, just weeks after Chair Jerome Powell and his team announced a half-point increase. It’s the latest in a string of blunders, including declaring high inflation “transitory” last year, hastening the end of its bond-purchase programme, and hastening the runoff of its bond portfolio.

President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde has recently become more hawkish than she previously indicated, and the Reserve Bank of Australia is among those raising rates faster than policymakers had indicated.