Inflation Is a Policy That Cannot Last
Are we heading toward a Fed policy that fixes inflation at a permanent rate of five to six percent?
We could be.
But inflation is a policy that cannot last.
We’re currently experiencing a massive wave of price inflation. This should come as no surprise. The Fed has increased the M2 money supply by around 40% since the end of 2019. The US government showered that newly created money on American consumers in the form of stimulus. Meanwhile, governments effectively shut down the US economy. That led to a big drop in production. This created the perfect inflationary storm. We have more money chasing fewer goods and services.
Prices are rising.
Now the Federal Reserve has a big problem. It needs to tighten monetary policy to take on inflation. But the economy depends on easy money. Economic growth is built on borrowing. Any significant tightening of monetary policy will pop the bubble and the whole house of cards will fall down.
The Fed has finally abandoned the “transitory” inflation narrative and it appears to be getting more serious about addressing the issue. But how will the central bank really play this?
In an article published by the Mises Wire, economist Thorsten Polleit asserts there are basically two scenarios in play.
(1) The Fed means business; it really wants to lower consumer goods price inflation back toward the 2% mark.
(2) The Fed just wants to keep inflation from spiraling out of control, but it does not want to abandon the new regime of increased inflation.
Scenario (1) is not impossible, but it is relatively unlikely. Under the prevailing economic and political doctrine, the Fed is not meant to curb inflation at the expense of triggering another economic and financial crisis…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
