inflation targeting essays

inflation targeting essays Between 1973 and 1987, the average inflation rate amongst industrialised countries was over 7.5 percent. This high level of inflation called for a new method of conducting monetary policy. With more and more countries shifting to a policy of inflation targeting (including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom just to name a few) the inflation rate had dramatically fallen to below 3 percent in 1998-99 (Nessen & Vestin, 2000). The primary reason for these countries altering their monetary policy was the change in general consensus to a belief that price stability and inflation targeting should be the overriding, long-term goals of monetary policy, as they produce more favourable economic outcomes (Mishkin, 1997). Some of the reasons that the general consensus shifted to support price stability are the long lag times involved in monetary activism, the fact that there is no long run trade-off between inflation and unemployment, and also the time-inconsistency problem . When the idea of inflation targeting first arose, there was a certain degree of scepticism amongst some economists who believed that if output was not targeted by monetary policy, it would not be able to correct itself (that is, a belief that the short run Phillips curve is not vertical). However, the majority of governments and economists alike now agree that that GDP is largely self-correcting, and by striving to achieve price stability, they believe better economic outcomes will be produced. The argument against inflation targeting is usually held by those who believe the Phillips curve is flat or not vertical for a substantial period of time (Dornbusch, Bodman, Crosby, Fischer & Startz, 2002). This is a belief that achieving output and unemployment goals far outweighs the benefits of achieving a stable inflation rate. Until around fifteen or twenty years ago, a stable price level was seen as unattainable, and the best that could be hoped for was ...

Free Essays on The Rise Of Capitalism And Western Dominance

The Rise of Capitalism and Western Dominance The West seems to be the most economically stable and powerful part of the modern world. This is largely true nowadays, but it hasn’t always been the case. Before the Renaissance, the civilizations of Western Europe were by far the most ignorant, uneducated, and unhygienic in the world, compared to the flourishing societies in India and China. Therefore, it is natural for one to be curious about what factors influenced Europe’s fabulous advance in prosperity. How did Europe catch up and eventually surpass the great civilizations in the Middle East and the Orient? Why didn’t those other societies experience a similar economic revolution? Countless factors influenced this unprecedented (and as yet, unrepeated) historic phenomenon, yet it seems clear that as feudalism gradually fell apart, the birth of capitalism paved the golden road to economic growth and prosperity in Europe. Feudo-manorialism was mostly a bane to economic, scientific, and technological progress in medieval Europe. While it would be untrue to say progress didn’t happen during the time period of C. E. 1000- 1500, it would be true to say that around 90% of Europe’s population was poor and had no possible way to progress themselves onto a higher financial plane (Rosenburg, 6). Nathan Rosenburg writes in his landmark work How the West Grew Rich that â€Å"The West had made progress, perhaps slow and irregular but still substantial, for five hundred years. Yet it was, by modern standards, poverty-stricken† (35). Serfs worked the land their entire lives as payment to their liege-lord for allowing them to live on his land. In return, the lord of the manor provided his tenants protection from marauding bandits, who most often took the form of knights loyal to a land-hungry neighboring lord. Indeed, land was the only kind of wealth that one could have; or more accuratel y, owning land was the only way of earni... Free Essays on The Rise Of Capitalism And Western Dominance Free Essays on The Rise Of Capitalism And Western Dominance The Rise of Capitalism and Western Dominance The West seems to be the most economically stable and powerful part of the modern world. This is largely true nowadays, but it hasn’t always been the case. Before the Renaissance, the civilizations of Western Europe were by far the most ignorant, uneducated, and unhygienic in the world, compared to the flourishing societies in India and China. Therefore, it is natural for one to be curious about what factors influenced Europe’s fabulous advance in prosperity. How did Europe catch up and eventually surpass the great civilizations in the Middle East and the Orient? Why didn’t those other societies experience a similar economic revolution? Countless factors influenced this unprecedented (and as yet, unrepeated) historic phenomenon, yet it seems clear that as feudalism gradually fell apart, the birth of capitalism paved the golden road to economic growth and prosperity in Europe. Feudo-manorialism was mostly a bane to economic, scientific, and technological progress in medieval Europe. While it would be untrue to say progress didn’t happen during the time period of C. E. 1000- 1500, it would be true to say that around 90% of Europe’s population was poor and had no possible way to progress themselves onto a higher financial plane (Rosenburg, 6). Nathan Rosenburg writes in his landmark work How the West Grew Rich that â€Å"The West had made progress, perhaps slow and irregular but still substantial, for five hundred years. Yet it was, by modern standards, poverty-stricken† (35). Serfs worked the land their entire lives as payment to their liege-lord for allowing them to live on his land. In return, the lord of the manor provided his tenants protection from marauding bandits, who most often took the form of knights loyal to a land-hungry neighboring lord. Indeed, land was the only kind of wealth that one could have; or more accuratel y, owning land was the only way of earni...

The Confessions of Saint Augustine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Confessions of Saint Augustine - Essay Example Saint Augustine’s memories of his indulgence in carnal pleasures and the adolescent pranks of stealing some pears, prompts him to probe the motives behind these sinful acts. In his search for truth, Saint Augustine relates that it was the Manichean explanation of a dualistic universe where good battled evil and their denial of the existence of a single all-powerful God that first attracted him towards their philosophy. His reasoning is that if God is good and He is all powerful, then how can He allow evil to exist? However, when even the Manichean doctrine could not quell his doubts, he turned to the Neo-Platonist philosophy where evil was explained not as a positive reality but as a lack of goodness. The Platonist philosophy taught him to think of spiritual reality and so conceive of God in non-dualistic terms. He finds in Platonism a way to reconcile his pursuit of philosophy with his faith in the Catholic Church. Their theory that God remains eternal and is the creator of a ll things, and all creation finally return to God strikes a chord. However, he was still unhappy because the Platonists liberated him from his erroneous thinking but even they could not help his lack of self-control which was to him very worrisome. He also complains that Platonism does not give praise to God. He was however inspired to turn inwards as the Platonists advised, to have a powerful vision of God. He tried to visualize God but failed to understand how something could exist without occupying space. He also did not find a solution to his question about evil. For a while, he suspected that evil could be the result of human will, but again wondered if God was all-powerful, how humans could choose evil over Him. It was when he read certain books of the Platonists that were translated from Greek to Latin, that he was inspired to have a powerful vision of God.