During the Financial Crisis of 2008-2009, a friend and I were convinced that the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary monetary measures would eventually create outsized inflationary pressures. We came up with a blog called “Inflation Watch” as a way to educate each other on price dynamics and to alert anyone else interested. The subsequent economic expansion came and went without even an inflation scare to provide some fireworks. Still, I remained vigilant and never forgot about Inflation Watch.
Thanks to the historic distortions of the COVID-19 pandemic, a real inflation scare is here, and it is global. With the Fed promising an aggressive fight against inflation, suddenly it is cool to worry about inflation again. Thus, I revived Inflation Watch starting with a critique of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s belated religion on inflation. I also wrote about the Bank of Japan’s assessment of lower inflationary pressures in Japan and the resulting weakness in the country’s currency. The latest piece provides an “ah ha!” on the core inflationary concern of the Fed: housing prices.
So if you also think worrying about inflation is cool again, I invite you to check out Inflation Watch on the blog and/or on twitter: “Watching for inflation here, there and everywhere.”
Be careful out there!