'Democratic Money' & the Tragedy of Anti-Marxism

[Ellen Frank]

>Inflation, which isn't necessarily good for the working class. I've 
>had this argument before, but maybe it's time to have it again. As 
>far as I can tell, there's no empirical evidence for the populist 
>assumption that higher rates of inflation are good for the w.c.

Well, I don't know which "populist assumption" you're referring to, since
I'm not sure what populist means these days.  But the loose money
argument is not so much that inflation is "good" but that deflation and
tight money are "bad."  There is a difference.  Inflation is tolerable, 
may, with institutional changes to protect wages and minimize conflict,
be socially beneficial.  The idea of democratic money is that such 
debates as we are having now should be held in public forums, not
in FOMC meetings.  

				Ellen

PS - And Doug, I apologize for jumping in just to argue with you when
we haven't spoken in a while.