On one level, isn't the creditor class's ( and its executive committee , the Fed)
constant concern about inflation , and method of fighting it by raising interest rates
as simple as:
1) When interest rates go up, creditors get more profits just straight up ( so the
claim that the interest rates are raised to fight inflation is a fig leaf for just
directly increasing their profits), and
2) Inflation helps debtors and hurts creditors.
CB
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02/01/01 11:22AM >>>
As Vickrey pointed out, it is unexpected changes in the rate of inflation and
not inflation in and of itself that is of potential concern (in general, not
under current conditions in our economy). As the Nobel-winner also emphasized,
unemployment has greater cost social and economic costs than even unexpected
changes in the rate of inflation, and the 'cure' for inflation hurts more than
inflation itself.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Devine [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 4:10 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:7613] Re: Re:GDP Byte by Dean Baker, 1/31/01
At 02:03 PM 1/31/01 -0800, you wrote:
>What are asset price bubbles if not inflation?
"inflation," when unqualified, almost always refers to consumer price
inflation. It's okay to add qualifications and thus to talk about asset
inflation, inflation of rhetoric, grade inflation, cost-of-living
inflation, etc., though.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
