Given the blunt force tool available to it, it must balance between those objectives. Very few ever question if involuntary unemployment isn't worse than some inflation. I guess it's a matter of perspective, which is compounded by the fact that higher interest rates create more money for investors in the bond market.

Once those higher rates are baked into the markets and production costs it can be difficult to see any real reduction in inflation, often extending it beyond what the natural market forces would. Carter fixed the primary cause of inflation from the oil embargo when he deregulated the gas industry. In spite of the rapid response the energy sector saw from that, inflation took a decade to ramp down afterward.