Friday, November 22, 2013

Quote of the Day: Four Old Fashioned Monetarist Heresies

1) For any given growth rate of aggregate spending, lower actual rates of price and wage inflation mean higher levels of output and employment;

2) For any given growth rate of aggregate spending, higher expected rates of price and wage inflation mean lower levels of output and employment;

3) An increase in the growth rate of aggregate spending is not the same as an increase in the equilibrium rate of inflation;

4) An increase in aggregate spending succeeds in raising the rate of inflation only in so far as it fails to increase output and employment.

I submit these old-fashioned monetarist heresies for the consideration of all those who think that an increased target rate of inflation will help us out of our present economic quagmire.
(italics original)

This is from economics Professor and Cato Institute senior fellow George Selgin at the FreeBanking.org.  In short, Inflation ≠ Real Economic Growth

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