The Fed and Powell are very nuanced in their statements about the path the Fed funds rate might take until inflation gets to 2%. The path could be continuously up (as you say), or up and then pause at a high level, or something else (because the Fed is clear that they are data-dependent in their decisions and the data changes constantly).
You wrote:
which means “continue to raise rates until inflation is 2%”.
And then provided one quote
which says nothing about continuing to raises rates, it only talks about sticking to a target,
and another quote
which says nothing about continuing to raises rates, it only mentions that getting to 2% will take some time and inflation data is noisy (bumpy).
Neither of those quotes say “continue to raise rates until inflation is 2%”.
In his last (Mar 22) press conference (https://www.federalreserve.gov/mediacenter/files/FOMCpresconf20230322.pdf), here is what Powell said about the path of rate hikes and/or 2% target.
p. 1 “…we remain strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 percent goal.” (nothing about continue to raise rates until we get there)
p. 3 “…we are strongly committed to returning inflation to our 2 percent objective.” (nothing about continue to raise rates until we get there)
In fact, Powell explicitly said, basically, the exact opposite of continue to raise rates:
p. 4. “…we no longer state that we anticipate that ongoing rate increases will be appropriate to quell inflation…”
Powell explicitly said the effective opposite what you said.
(with the usual hedging, like “anticipate”, because they reserve the right to change their minds)
He further says “…instead, we now anticipate that some additional policy firming may be appropriate.” but is vague about what this means in terms of the magnitude and timing of rate hikes. This was a very purposeful statement and goes on to say that their decisions will be data dependent. They might pause indefinitely, or pause for a bit and then raise more if needed, or keep raising, or pause and lower, or whatever they feel after they put their finger to the wind.
I’m fairly certain that if Powell actually said (explicitly without all kinds of hedging and caveats) “continue to raise rates until inflation is 2%”, then
- the financial press would be all over this
- interest rates would be much higher than they are now
- we would have a pretty strong recession by the time inflation actually measured 2% (PCE inflation measured trailing twelve months, which was still at 5% as of end of Feb 2023)
- we could find a quote from the Fed and/or Powell that actually says “continue to raise rates until inflation is 2%”