After taking a beating in January the S&P 500 has rebounded by about 5% in February, and this uptrend has continued into March. But before you think it’s safe to jump back into long positions, it’s important to realize why the market went down in the first place, and why February’s rebound won’t last.

In December of 2015, the Federal Reserve ended its Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP). At that time the Fed’s median dot plot showed the Federal Funds Rate was expected to rise to 1.5% by the end of 2016. The market plunged on the expectation that the Fed, now that it actually showed the willingness to move off of zero, would then follow through on subsequent planned rate hikes. The combination of sub-par growth coupled with a hawkish Fed policy led to the worst start of any year in stock market history.

But as the stock market began to crash, more and more Fed voting members started to walk back the notion that the U.S. economy was strong enough to endure a rising rate environment. Adding to this dovish sentiment, the formerly-hawkish James Bullard began voicing concerns about reaching the Fed’s 2% inflation target based on the plunge in oil prices. Talking to a group of bond traders, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard recently said: “The Federal Reserve must act to stop inflation expectations from getting too low.”

But the truth is that oil prices had already plunged from $105 in the middle of 2014, to below $48 per barrel by the end of 2015. So, the commodity plunge wasn’t a new issue.

Therefore, you have to ask yourself: why was the Fed suddenly so concerned about not achieving its inflation target?

The real reason the Fed claims to be so worried about reaching its inflation target and is changing its tune on future rate hikes has little to do with falling oil prices; but rather, everything to do with a falling stock market. This faux concern about inflation supports my contention that the Fed is an institution whose sole creation and existence is to help banks and Wall Street.