Blog
Mervyn King on Tailwinds and Headwinds
10th February 2010
Mervyn King delivers the latest Inflation Report from the Bank of England and focuses on the strength of two forces:
1/ The tailwind of the policy stimulus from monetary and fiscal policy 2/ The headwind of the continued deleveraging in the financial system
It is a good analogy to use and one that students should be able to latch onto as they grapple with their macroeconomics.
This BBC news video provides a good overview of the Bank’s current thinking. In it the Governor explains why the Bank will - for the third time - expects to write to the Chancellor to explain an inflation overshoot. And he comes out with a good quote “Monetary policy can do little to affect short-term changes in inflation” ....... instead it has more leverage on the growth of total spending in the economy which (relative to the supply-side capacity of the economy) affects demand-pull inflationary pressures during the economic cycle.
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.
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