Category: Inflation

Inflation: Facts & Pernicious Myths

Edited: I meant to add a number of articles to the page on Inflation. Then it turned into more. I think readers will find it worth their time.

Are Major Central Banks Doing Enough to Fight Inflation?
— James K. Galbraith Project Syndicate April 14, 2022
He begins “Say what? Seriously? OK, I’ll give it a try, but promise me this is not a joke…The notion that central banks fight inflation is a pernicious myth, spread by their officers, acolytes, and by credulous reporters. Central banks raise interest rates. The blather about inflation is eyewash.”

Beware the Inflationary Bogeyman • Recent price increases in the U.S., and demands for a forceful response by the Federal Reserve, have brought back memories of the 1970s and all of the economic and political disasters of those years.
— James K. Galbraith Common Dreams, Project Syndicate – November 20, 2021

CPI, commodity charts Quite a few price increases, which the media now calls ‘inflation’ even though inflation is a continuous increase in the price level.
— Warren Mosler (@WBMosler) Mosler Economics/Modern Monetary Theory Nov 12, 2021

An MMT Perspective: Interest Rates and Inflation with Warren Mosler
— Warren Mosler (@WBMosler) Real Progressives June 26, 2021 (01:05:31)

Manhattan Project to prevent Hyper-Inflation
— J.D. Alt New Economic Perspectives March 26, 2020

Clarity: Inflation – Labor Shortages – Michael Moore -Steven Hail – Stephanie Kelton

#GlobalMMT Modern Money Lab

An Inflated Sense of Inflation (w/ Stephanie Kelton) #Labor Shortages
— Episode 220: Rumble w/ Michael Moore (@MMFlint) Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) (01:04:00)

Steven Hail’s Nov 1, 2021 Twitter thread begins:
“Inflation is not in itself some terrible disease which we have to minimize or eliminate.
It is not like Covid, needing to be stamped out. It is not like involuntary unemployment, underemployment and insecure employment, which are genuinely social evils.” Read more.

Debt Ceiling, Job Guarantee, Inflation

Grabbing a moment to catch up:

The Case for Minting a $1tn coin to deal with America’s Debt Ceiling
— Nathan Tankus (@NathanTankus) <em>The Guardian</em> (@guardian) Oct 15, 2021

Good Forms of Collectivity: Low-Carbon Care Work and a Federal Job Guarantee

— Natan Last (@NatanLast) Los Angeles Review of Books @LAReviewofBooks April 26, 2021

Like Haiku, the limits created by Twitter offer opportunities for brevity and coherence. Here’s the first bit of Steven Hail’s admirable Nov 1, 2021 Twitter thread:
“Inflation is not in itself some terrible disease which we have to minimize or eliminate.
It is not like Covid, needing to be stamped out. It is not like involuntary unemployment, underemployment and insecure employment, which are genuinely social evils.” Read more.

The POINT of MMT is Inflation!

The POINT of saying “deficits don’t matter” is that policymakers should be asking “will this cause inflation?” instead of “are we spending too much?”

Budget planners should analyze use of resources, capacities, etc., instead of just looking at “scary” dollar amounts.

Stephanie Kelton, writing at her Substack, in We Need to Think Harder About Inflation, explains,

The MMT lens keeps us focused on the things that matter. It’s not the headline dollar figure—$1.9 or $3.5 trillion—or the budgetary impacts of that spending that warrant our attention. What matters is the economy’s capacity to safely absorb those dollars as they begin to flow into people’s pockets.

But what about Weimar?

The FAQ now has a page on hyperinflation. These three added to Warren Mosler’s page, too.

Weimar Republic Hyperinflation through a Modern Monetary Theory Lens
— Phil Armstrong (@PhilArmstrong58), Warren Mosler (WBMosler) 2020

#88 Warren Mosler & Phil Armstrong: Weimar Republic Hyperinflation Through An MMT Lens (part 1)
— The MMT Podcast with Patricia Pino & Christian Reilly (@MMTpodcast) Feb 17, 2021

#89 Warren Mosler & Phil Armstrong: Weimar Republic Hyperinflation Through An MMT Lens (part 2)
— The MMT Podcast with Patricia Pino & Christian Reilly (@MMTpodcast) Feb 24, 2021