This is correct. And the biggest contributors to defecit spending are (drum roll):
1. Bush tax cuts
2. Iraq War (supported by Samuelson) financed by IOUs
3. The idiot prescription drug benefit (which outlaws price negotiation with the pharmaceuticals) used successfully to by the 2004 election.
I don't remember any screams of outrage from Samuelson on these. Except for the third, he clearly supported them.
SPONSORED BY:
- 1
- 2
The Return of Inflation?
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
SPONSORED BY
Still, all large inflations involve "too much money chasing too few goods," as economist Milton Friedman often noted, and this episode is no exception. The Fed's easy-money policies have global effects. Many countries peg their currencies to the dollar—formally or informally—and shadow Fed policies. Meanwhile, oil producers and other commodity exporters have been flooded with dollars; in practice, the extra cash allows them to run easy-money policies. The result is that despite the U.S. slowdown, much of the world is booming. Developing countries, now about half the global economy, have been growing at about 7 percent since 2002. Higher inflation is a worldwide phenomenon. In China and India, it's about 8 percent. In Russia, it's 15 percent.
One antidote to rising raw materials prices is for the Fed to reverse its easy-money policies. Combating inflation is rarely popular or easy, because it involves slowing the economy, even inducing a recession, to relieve pressures on prices and wages. Unemployment rises. There are usually plausible reasons for waiting. Surely there are now. Housing remains in disarray. More loan defaults could increase bank losses. No matter what the Fed does, there are dangers. Perhaps inflation will spontaneously subside (as some Fed officials hope) because the economy is already weak.
But similar arguments for delay were made in the 1960s, with disastrous results. The resulting inflationary psychology made inflation harder to extinguish. The initial unwillingness to take a modest slowdown or recession led to deeper subsequent recessions. There are now signs that we are at a similar juncture. Surveys show that people's "inflationary expectations," after years of stability, are rising. The Fed is holding its key interest rate at 2 percent, well below prevailing inflation. In the 1970s, this condition stoked inflation. An indecisive Fed risks repeating its previous blunder.
© 2008
- 1
- 2
Presented By
My Take
Each Newsweek reader is different—and now your Newsweek can be, too. Use this page to create a experience that's personalized for you and your interests. My Take: it makes Newsweek whatever you want it to be.
Discuss