by Brendan Brown
Mises.org
In our time, the greatest source of money chaos is now the global 2%-inflation standard. Deflation-phobic central bankers, led by the FOMC at the Fed, are defying the natural rhythm of prices in a capitalist economy. Under sound money, there would be periods of both falling and rising prices.
Since central bankers choose to steadfastly ignore this reality, the result has been the emergence of three serious global asset price inflation diseases in just three decades. Their undermining of economic prosperity has shown up as a situation marked by low investment, malinvestment, and correspondingly weak real income and productivity growth. This has been coupled with episodes of huge profits for “Wall Street,” and the resulting increased inequality has made fertile ground for populism both on the left and the right. Meanwhile, the intensified regulatory state, which populism has helped produce, has compounded the economic malaise.