Central bank independence remains important for core inflation containment in the current age of political populism.

Jonah Whanau

2019-04-21 10:07:54 Sun ET

Central bank independence remains important for core inflation containment in the current age of political populism. In accordance with the dual mandate of both price stability and maximum sustainable employment, most central banks seek to solve the dynamic consistency problem on the basis of a key desire to insulate monetary policy decisions from political influence.

A landmark empirical study of cross-country comparisons by Alberto Alesina and Lawrence Summers confirms that countries with better central bank independence experience lower inflation without suffering any real economic output or labor force penalty. An independent central bank can enhance fiscal discipline by reducing the relative likelihood of fiscal dominance and monetization of perennial budget deficits.

Historical experience and economic theory teach us an informative lesson. When monetary policy is subject to political control, people expect dovish expansionary interest rate adjustments and so anticipate higher wages and prices in response. The undesirable economic outcome is stagflation (or the worst-case scenario of both high inflation and high unemployment). It can cost prohibitive welfare losses for the central bank to bring down inflation with subsequent interest rate hikes. Key credible apolitical monetary policy decisions would thus promote price stability with minimal real impact on economic growth, employment, and capital investment.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Laura Hermes

2019-01-29 10:33:00 Tuesday ET

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work. In fact, multinational manufacturers have been trying to create global suppl

+See More

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

Amy Hamilton

2019-06-30 12:37:00 Sunday ET

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

AYA Analytica finbuzz podcast channel on YouTube June 2019 In this podcast, we discuss several topical issues as of June 2019: (1) Federal Reserve h

+See More

Fundamental factors often reflect macroeconomic innovations and so help inform better stock investment decisions.

Jacob Miramar

2019-08-22 11:35:00 Thursday ET

Fundamental factors often reflect macroeconomic innovations and so help inform better stock investment decisions.

Fundamental factors often reflect macroeconomic innovations and so help inform better stock investment decisions. Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama and his long-ti

+See More

Warren Buffett shares his key insights into life, success, money, and interpersonal communication.

Rose Prince

2018-09-09 13:42:00 Sunday ET

Warren Buffett shares his key insights into life, success, money, and interpersonal communication.

Warren Buffett shares his key insights into life, success, money, and interpersonal communication. Institutional money managers and retail investors ca

+See More

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

Apple Boston

2019-01-08 17:46:00 Tuesday ET

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

President Trump forces the Federal Reserve to normalize the current interest rate hike to signal its own monetary policy independence from the White House.

+See More

America and China play the game of chicken over trade and technology.

John Fourier

2018-05-01 11:38:00 Tuesday ET

America and China play the game of chicken over trade and technology.

America and China play the game of chicken over trade and technology, whereas, most market observers and economic media commentators hope the Trump team to

+See More