"But the real problem is that the global economy is badly overleveraged, and there is no quick escape without a scheme to transfer wealth from creditors to debtors, either through defaults, financial repression, or inflation."
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rogoff83/English
See also my comments here: http://crazyland.tumblr.com/post/8391053988/rumblings-among-the-orthodox
________________________________ From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Saturday, August 6, 2011 8:57 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Inflation a cure, not a disease?
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/20118365938756720.html
"...I argued that the only practical way to shorten the coming period of painful deleveraging and slow growth would be a sustained burst of moderate inflation, say, four to six per cent for several years. Of course, inflation is an unfair and arbitrary transfer of income from savers to debtors. But, at the end of the day, such a transfer is the most direct approach to faster recovery. Eventually, it will take place one way or another, anyway - as Europe is painfully learning."
[Kenneth Rogoff is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University, and was formerly chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.] ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk