Turns out one actually isn't the loneliest number.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzo.

It is Thursday today, December the 15th.

Good as always to have you along, everybody.

There is perhaps no number in macroeconomics as exalted as two, two as in two percent.

The Federal Reserve's longstanding target for inflation.

And in fact, Jay Powell said at his press conference yesterday, and I'm only lightly paraphrasing

here, we're going to keep raising interest rates and keep them high for as long as it takes

to get inflation to two percent.

Now, as nobody needs reminding with inflation as of the most recent consumer price index

at 7.1 percent over the past year, we're a long way from the Fed's target.

So why is the central bank hung up on 2 percent?

One out three.

One out five.

Marketplace is met 11.

Has some answers.

Economists mostly agree double-digit inflation is really bad, and deflation is the symptom

of a crashing economy.

But 2 percent specifically, that number doesn't come from some elaborate equation Milton Friedman

or Alan Greenspan came up with.

It doesn't even come from the US.

...