Quick — name something that's hard to contain once let loose. Remembering your Greek mythology, you might mention the swirl of human misery that escaped from Pandora's box. For those in the post-"Harry Potter" generations, perhaps Cornish pixies pop to mind. But for the third or so of Americans who are old enough to have been paying attention during the 1970s, an appropriate answer would be inflation.

If you had to have one of these problems, the impish pixies would be the best of the bunch. As it turned out, they were conquerable with a confidently issued incantation. In the telling of Pandora's tale, evil is with us forevermore. Inflation, on the other — uh, third — hand, can be beat, but not without some serious economic pain.

Which is why it's noteworthy that the Federal Reserve Board is now willing to let the level of price growth run hotter than its traditional target in order to encourage a strong labor market. It's the right move and still pretty cautious, but it's not without risk.

The Fed codified the policy shift last month. Its chairman, Jerome Powell, suggested that the situation today is a mirror opposite of that faced by one of his predecessors, Paul Volcker.

When Volcker took office in 1979, inflation was on a tear. It had been as low as 1% in 1965 but had levitated into double digits. Volcker was aggressive in response. Under his guidance, the Fed targeted the money supply, launching interest rates like a rocket and driving the economy into a deep recession.

It worked. No longer prodded by the fear that their money would be worth less in the future, Americans stopped spending as much of it — assuming they even had it to spend, since millions lost their jobs. Inflation went back under its rock. There it has remained for subsequent generations. Not even the record-low unemployment rates attained before the coronavirus pandemic challenged the pattern. (High levels of employment are typically thought to drive up prices by driving up wages, but that hasn't happened in many years. Blame automation, outsourcing, the decline of unions, the gig economy …)

Note those two interlocking concepts — jobs and inflation. They're the components of the Federal Reserve Board's "dual mandate." Keeping both at appropriate levels is the Fed's job. At least some inflation is necessary for economic growth. For the Fed until recently, that's been a strict 2% by the measures it uses. Now it will be more like 2% give-or-take.

"Many find it counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation," Powell said during a Fed symposium. "However, inflation that is persistently too low can pose serious risks to the economy."

It's worth mentioning that while the inflation that ultimately grew out of control in the 1970s had many causes, at least one was a wish to keep interest rates low to pump the economy.

It's also worth mentioning that an extra benefit of keeping interest rates low today is that it will lower the cost of servicing debt. Federal debt is the bubble du jour, expanding worryingly even before the pandemic and picking up the pace in response to it. But at the same time, the government can, in essence, refinance and afford more of it. It's almost like magic. Dark magic.

If facilitating deficit spending is a goal of the Fed's new policy, it's unspoken, and we don't mean to insinuate. The stated goal is sufficient. For too large of a segment of the population, personal economic advancement was elusive even before the pandemic. Those Americans won't have the same opportunities the wealthiest ones do to invest in assets that can benefit from high inflation should it occur, but they do need help.

So let's return our attention to Pandora's box (which, technically, was a jar). Seeing the chaos she had unleashed upon humanity, Pandora — a mortal among gods — rushed to close the lid, sealing one remaining element inside. It was hope.