Inflation

Tuesday

Mark Bathgate

Deconstructing David Blanchflower

What with his new column in the New Statesman and his articles for other outlets, David Blanchflower – a former member of the MPC – really does seem to enjoy laying into the Tories.  Problem is, much of what he says fails to convince – so much so, in fact, that I thought I’d bash out a quick fisk of his Guardian article from last Friday.  Here’s the full article with my comments in bold: We are in the midst of the worst recession most people alive have ever experienced, or will probably ever experience. It is already worse than the 1980s and it isn’t over yet. The only comparison

Andrew Lilico

Ongoing deflation

This morning the inflation figures were released for September.  They show that the economy is in ongoing deflation, as it has been since March 2009, with the annual change in the Retail Prices Index (RPI) standing at -1.4 percent.  At the same time, the policy index used by the Bank of England to determine its interest rate and quantitative easing policies – the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) – saw its annual rate of inflation fall to 1.1 percent from 1.6 percent. Some press commentary suggests that the fall in CPI inflation to 1.1 percent suggests there is now a threat of outright deflation next year.  This is wrong.  The country