Did the Fed's Departure from the Taylor Rule Get Us in Trouble?

At the close of each of its Open Market Committee Meetings, held roughly every six weeks, the Fed announces its target for the federal funds rate, the rate of interest that banks charge each other for overnight loans of reserves. Note that the Fed doesn't force banks to charge that rate. What the Fed does is either speed up or slow down the rate of money growth using open market operations--buying or selling bonds on the bond market--thereby manipulating the federal funds rate in the desire...