Bridget Bodner

Ryan, don't open that.

You're embarrassing me.

And besides, the basket is not an actual basket.

It's just a way to follow the price of things.

And if the prices of all the things in the basket are rising too fast or not fast enough, the Fed can do something about it.

Sort of.

Well, they have very specific tools, so there are only certain things they can do.

Like, they can make borrowing money more expensive.

Oh, it's something that slows the economy down.

So like when we were on that merry-go-round, the problem is there are plenty of things the Fed can't do.

Congress can, but the Fed can't.

And as for the stuff they can do, well, there's just a lot the Fed doesn't control about the world and the people in it, and their tools just don't always work the way they think they will.

But in general, in a crisis, the Fed is pretty good at keeping our economy working the way we need it to.

Not really.

Presidents can't really push a magic button to make prices go down or anything.

I mean, no one can.

Even sometimes the Federal Reserve is all like, I don't know, but definitely not a president.

Oh wow, it's Janet Yellen.

Just taking a coffee break.

Do you think she'd take a selfie with me?