The Fed as we know it gradually moves interest rates up and down at pre-designated meetings. They explain their decision-making with as much communication as possible and release their economic projections to give Americans an idea of what's coming in the future.

That wasn't the case in 1980, when inflation soared to 14.6%, the highest level on record.

Under the leadership of Paul Volcker, Fed officials hiked and cut their benchmark rates sharply at unscheduled meetings without corresponding policy statements. The fed funds rate didn't have a tight target range like today's — it regularly spanned 5 percentage points. It wasn't until Alan Greenspan took over in the 1990s that the Fed started adjusting rates at FOMC meetings and it wasn't until the 2000s that the central bank began cyclically tightening and loosening rates.

Big changes also occurred in 2008 under the leadership of Ben Bernanke. That's when the Fed responded to the Great Recession by enacting a policy that was previously unfathomable: Interest rates were slashed by 100 basis points to near-zero. They remained there until 2015.

These actions were "experimental and unprecedented," said Christopher Leonard, author of The Lords of Easy Money, an upcoming book on the history of the Fed. "They pushed boundaries."

The Fed as we know it gradually moves interest rates up and down at pre-designated meetings. They explain their decision-making with as much communication as possible and release their economic projections to give Americans an idea of what's coming in the future.

That wasn't the case in 1980, when inflation soared to 14.6%, the highest level on record.

Under the leadership of Paul Volcker, Fed officials hiked and cut their benchmark rates sharply at unscheduled meetings without corresponding policy statements. The fed funds rate didn't have a tight target range like today's — it regularly spanned 5 percentage points. It wasn't until Alan Greenspan took over in the 1990s that the Fed started adjusting rates at FOMC meetings and it wasn't until the 2000s that the central bank began cyclically tightening and loosening rates.

Big changes also occurred in 2008 under the leadership of Ben Bernanke. That's when the Fed responded to the Great Recession by enacting a policy that was previously unfathomable: Interest rates were slashed by 100 basis points to near-zero. They remained there until 2015.

These actions were "experimental and unprecedented," said Christopher Leonard, author of The Lords of Easy Money, an upcoming book on the history of the Fed. "They pushed boundaries."