The Humphrey-Hawkins law, passed by the U.S. Congress in the late 1970's, calls for full employment at low inflation (the law was passed when we had high unemployment and high inflation) and tasks the Federal Reserve, America's central bank, with making that happen.

And the Fed keeps relentlessly saying “We take it very seriously.”

I call it a law against recessions for convenience.

The law expired in the summer of 2000 - but when that time was reached, the government and the Fed decided that they liked the results of the enforcement of the law up until that time, basically up through the end of the 1990's, so much that they decided to continue to enforce it as if nothing had changed.

That is what they are doing.