America's low savings rate

[Lawrence]

>From 15 fallacies of financial fundamentalism: "Inflation occurs when
sellers raise prices; they can do this profitably when the forces of
competition are weakened by the differentiation of products, real and
factitious, misleading advertising, obfuscating sales gimmicks and package
deals, mergers and takeovers, and the increasing importance of ancillary
services, trade secrets, patents, copyrights, economies of scale, overheads,
and start-up costs. Inflation can and does occur in the midst of
underutilized resources, and need not occur even if we were to consume our
capital by failure to maintain and replace it, consuming more than we
produce.
http://www.cfeps.org/public/VickreyWP1.htm "

Is this true? Have other economists accepted this view? Does this man have
followers who are pursuing further research in this line? The implication,
if I read it right, is that inflation, especially the permanence it's gained
since WWII, is not a product of too much spending, but a product of all the
weapons in the arsenal of the business community (advertising, patents,
copyrights)? That seems like a lot of monopoly rent. I know a lot of
liberals who've argued that inflation in no way limits the real growth of
the economy. But doesn't this whole bit suggest the opposite? It suggests
that inflation is the product of a massive amount of parasitism. Is that
truly not harmful?