Notable Quotable

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“Deflation is a threat posed by a critical breakdown of the financial system. Slow growth and recurrent recessions without systemic financial disturbances, even the big recessions of 1975 and 1982, have not posed such a risk.  The real danger comes from encouraging or inadvertently tolerating rising inflation and its close cousin of extreme speculation and risk taking, in effect standing by while bubbles and excesses threaten financial markets. Ironically, the ‘easy money,’ striving for a ‘little inflation’ as a means of forestalling deflation, could, in the end, be what brings it about.  That is the basic lesson for monetary policy. It demands emphasis on price stability and prudent oversight of the financial system. Both of those requirements inexorably lead to the responsibilities of a central bank.”

Paul Volcker
Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
(2018)

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––