Yellen supposedly told Greenspan & co in the mid 90s that 2% was a good way for companies to be able to adjust labor costs down if needed (if you don't give someone a raise when inflation is 2%, you're effectively lowering their salary). It was the only way to have some flexibility there. If you admit that this is a desirable thing, this is defeated by wage negotiations (or say, benefits) than tend to be indexed to inflation.
Another interesting thing that happened under Greenspan is how inflation is computed (hedonics, replacements, etc... conceptually, think "if I can't buy a porterhouse steak anymore, I'll get the lesser hanger", meaning inflation is underreported). I'm not suggesting this was intentional or coordinated, but this had the huge benefit for federal and local governments that it lowered the benefits they had to pay out that were linked to inflation. Issue is it hurts the poor more.
Another interesting thing that happened under Greenspan is how inflation is computed (hedonics, replacements, etc... conceptually, think "if I can't buy a porterhouse steak anymore, I'll get the lesser hanger", meaning inflation is underreported). I'm not suggesting this was intentional or coordinated, but this had the huge benefit for federal and local governments that it lowered the benefits they had to pay out that were linked to inflation. Issue is it hurts the poor more.