> The Fed's tools are very blunt, and the only way it can reduce at-the-register prices for things like food and gas are indeed by hammering down aggregate demand, i.e. inducing a recession.

By some measures, it's not even succeeding in inducing a recession. Demand isn't even necessarily declining - you would need a common sense explanation why the rate of increase in demand doesn't sometimes fluctuate or go down anyway, in the absence of fed action.

The Fed's tools are extremely effective at taking a huge shit on bond prices. They have huge financial impacts. But you are not giving me a common sense explanation for how raising interest rates will reduce the prices of food and gas.