Two points this week.

The first is that you may have heard some howling by politicians about the economy. Last week the government told us the economy had slowed. To its slowest pace in four years or so.

And so various pols flung this news into the air and jabbed a finger in its direction. “Y’see! The economy is hurting. This president’s policies are whacking the economy.”

Just a tiny point to make here. The slowdown is supposed to happen. It was scheduled. Just like the latest episode of the Sopranos. The Federal Reserve called for it, planned it and achieved it.

The Fed reckoned our economy was overheating. The Fed peered ahead and saw a blight at the end of the tunnel. The blight of inflation. Can’t have that, it told us. And so it ratcheted up interest rates every few months for a couple of years. Remember that? The whining politicians don’t. I take that back. They do. But they don’t want you to.

The problem was that the Bush tax cuts worked so well the economy not only grew. But grew too quickly. The Fed had to slow down the economy. When it slows us down it threatens to push us into a recession. This is the nature of the beast. The beast being that the Fed tries to perform delicate surgery on the economy. But its only instruments are cudgels. Forceps please. Machete please.