Focal Points

Since the onset of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have pursued unprecedented monetary expansion in an effort to stem record-high unemployment and stimulate economic recovery. Should financial markets fear the inflationary risks implicit in such measures? Or should they hope for moderate inflation as a spur to credit and investment?

The Inflation Fixation

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  • Newsart for Is Inflation Returning?

    Is Inflation Returning?

    CAMBRIDGE – Inflation is now low in every industrial country, and the combination of high unemployment and slow GDP growth removes the usual…

  • Newsart for How Long for Low Rates?

    How Long for Low Rates?

    CAMBRIDGE – How long can today’s record-low, major-currency interest rates persist? Ten-year interest rates in the United States, the United…

  • Newsart for Is Inflation the Answer?

    Is Inflation the Answer?

    CHICAGO – Recently, a number of commentators have proposed a sharp, contained bout of inflation as a way to reduce debt and reenergize growt…

  • Newsart for Inflationary Angst

    Inflationary Angst

    PRINCETON – Can central banks contain inflation? We once thought they could. Over the past 20 years, central banks around the world, includi…

  • Newsart for Targeting the Targeters

    Targeting the Targeters

    LONDON – Speaking in the happier economic times of 2005, Mervyn King – then, as now, Governor of the Bank of England – stressed the importan…

  • Newsart for Inflation or Deflation?

    Inflation or Deflation?

    CAMBRIDGE – The investors that I talk to these days are not sure whether to worry more about future inflation in the United States or about …

  • Newsart for The Bogey of Inflation

    The Bogey of Inflation

    LONDON – How real is the danger of inflation for the world economy? Opinion on this matter is divided between conservative economists and o…

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