former federal reserve chairman ben bernanke contends that monetary policy is 98 talk central bankers are supposed to communicate goals they want the public and markets to believe european central bank president christine lagarde apparently hasn’t gotten the memo at a gathering of policy makers this past week lagarde commented that she doubts that “we are going back to that environment of low inflation” that existed prior to the onset of the covid19 pandemic that hinted at the possibility that central banks will have to get accustomed to higher inflation and eventually accommodate it by reversing course on rates which now are rising sharply