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I don't think that they have a different take than the central banks, but the central banks don't advertise openly how interest rate hikes "tame inflation". In
by tdullien 4y ago
I don't think that they have a different take than the central banks, but the central banks don't advertise openly how interest rate hikes "tame inflation".
In the end, you cannot have any durable inflation without wage increases - supply shocks can cause temporary inflation, but long-term you need a cycle of wage increases that lead to price hikes to perpetuate inflation.
The way that tightening policy tames inflation is by choking off enough of the economy to ensure that demand for labor is reduced to the point where labor no longer has bargaining power to obtain wage increases.
This is clear to anyone that follows economics, but it's sufficiently inflammatory that it's not expressed in plain language. You tame inflation by tanking the economy just enough so that employees lose their bargaining power, and hopefully not more - but you can't achieve that without creating a certain level of unemployment, otherwise employees keep their bargaining power.