Biden is undermining the Federal Reserve's efforts to curb inflation
Almost like a morality play, however, the excesses of politicians and fiscal policy are conspiring to limit the potency of higher interest rates and stoke inflation.
In a nutshell, monetary and fiscal policy are pulling most advanced economies in opposite directions, and badly conceived climate change and wartime economic policies make it all worse.
The
This program was conceived before the invasion of
EU and other continental governments are seeking to cushion the blow of higher energy prices on households, industry and small businesses with more than
The
Deficit spending or even spending partially funded by tax increases to catch the windfall profits of energy companies is hardly what national governments should be doing when the aggregate demand for goods and services already exceeds the supply, and central banks are raising interest rates to curb consumer spending and private investment.
Putting it bluntly, the
The Europeans — at the behest and with the support of Americans —h ave chosen economic war and materiel aid to
These include the designation of wartime prime ministers, unity cabinets and rationing of life’s essentials — fuel, food and so forth — and price and wage controls to curb inflationary pressures that have fundamentally political, not economic, origins.
Popular discontent with the effects of higher energy and food prices on overall living standards are turning into extremism and rather non-Euclidean economic reasoning. How else could you explain a debt-burdened and isolated
For more than a decade, escaping deflation — boosting inflation by whatever measures may be necessary — has been the policy to revive growth, but Japan’s problems are not rooted in shortages of demand.
Rather, it has a virtually stagnant labor force — the product of too few births and very limited immigration. More importantly, what the Japanese economy does best — run large, complex industrial operations — unfortunately inspires poor innovation and growth.
For the last several decades, economic dynamism in America has been driven by startups that quickly grow to challenge established companies — Apple, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Tesla and the like.
America’s top universities turn out entrepreneurs in sufficient quantities to lead risk-taking, whereas Japan’s educational system mints company men — the Asian analog to IBM’s 1980s executive in the bland gray suit and tan raincoat.
The
All that is taking the exchange rate for the dollar up against the euro and the yen and making inflation worse in
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If
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Study supports Fed's timing of earliest interest rate hikes
Consumer survey reveals inflation to ease next year, spending to slow
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