By Martin Wolf
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon – Milton Friedman
What explains the combination of a “credit crunch” in the US with soaring commodity prices and rising inflation across the globe? Are these unrelated events or part of a bigger picture? The answer is the latter. So far this is not a return to the 1970s. But action is needed to keep this true.
Inflation is a sustained rise in the price level: the result of too much money (or purchasing power) chasing too few goods and services. A one-off jump in commodity prices is not inflation. Nor need such a jump cause inflation. But a continuous rise in the relative price of commodities is a symptom of an inflationary process.
The remainder of this column can be read here. Debate from our expert panel appears below.
