454 Results for “inflation”

Exit Strategies and the New Normal

Consumer demand by America’s most affluent citizens is driving consumer spending, and consumer spending, in turn, is the main force keeping inflation so high

Is inflation just a number game or does it hold deeper societal implications?

With unemployment reaching very low levels in major economies, despite low – and slowly rising – inflation, it’s time for central banks to rethink their reliance on the so-called natural rate. No numerical target for this rate can serve as an anchor for monetary policy.

The debate about so-called helicopter money is burdened by deep fears and unnecessary confusions: some worry that monetary finance is bound to produce hyperinflation; others argue that, in terms of increasing demand and inflation, it would be no more effective than current policies. Both cannot be right.

When central banks set inflation targets, they effectively redistribute income from wage earners to bondholders

What does Biden’s economic policy mean for the future?

Is it good for your wallet? A climate bill in disguise? Landmark action or nothingburger? Economic experts assess the Democrats’ legislative victory for the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Servaas Storm’s commentary for an INET symposium on the Inflation Reduction Act

Peter Coy, in an OpEd for the New York Times, cited Servaas Storm’s INET working paper criticizing Bernanke and Blanchard’s inflation explanation.

Fears of ‘stagflation’ have come back to haunt macroeconomic policy makers all over the globe

A recent policy brief by Blanchard (2016), based on an earlier paper (Blanchard, Cerutti, Summers 2015) raises a number of interesting points concerning the NAIRU and the Phillips Curve, which are further discussed in the comment on the paper by Ball (2015).

A critical reappraisal of the case in favor of monetary tightening pressed by inflation hawks is overdue.

Monetary policy should be guided much more by financial sector developments and much less by near-term targets for inflation.

How convincing is the model analysis by Bernanke and Blanchard? How empirically relevant are their mechanisms causing inflation – and how robust and plausible are their econometric findings?