Re: India inflation eases to 4.80 pc
On Jul 4, 2007, at 11:39 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
There are orthodox capitalist instruments for controlling inflation: raise interest rates, remove state interventions (such as duties on certain food imports), and let the market do its work (though orthodox capitalist policy over all can help guerrilla insurgency against the government grow: “India’s Hidden War,” 27 October 2006, http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/ontv/unreported_world/india +indias+hidden+war/248548>). Would Doug recommend them for Iran and Venezuela, which are pressured to implement them by their own capitalists as well as the ruling-class media worldwide?
Progressive governments should be concerned about inflation; it puts
a real strain on working people, and can undermine political support
over time. It matters where the inflation is coming from - if it’s
coming from loose monetary policy, big deficit spending, and
stretching resources then something is going to break. Obviously
orthodox capitalist policies are not the way to deal with the
problem. I don’t really know what the answer is, but promising things
you can’t deliver and then pushing inflation higher in your attempt
to try is politically suicidal. Since I have less than nothing
invested in the Iranian regime, I’m not going to worry about their
fate, but I do have a lot of hope for Venezuela, so I’m really
nervous about seeing prices rise there.
Doug