A Critical, Obvious, Underappreciated Point About Real Rates

On countless occasions over the past 12 or so months, Fed critics insisted that despite aggressive rate hikes, the real funds rate was still far too forgiving to be effective at countering inflation. To the extent that argument relied on a funds rate adjusted for contemporaneous (i.e., realized) inflation, it was spurious to the point of being either disingenuous or ignorant. When addressing it, I'm usually generous: I assume it's an example of critics being mendacious, not stupid. I have, mys