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Inflation: refusing to pay for it
In the past, the Western ruling class has sought to manage inflation by ensuring that rising prices are not matched by growing salaries — but the global environment and domestic resistance from the organised working class are making this difficult, writes PRABHAT PATNAIK
The fact that inflation is sought to be controlled by squeezing the share of the working class does not mean that the working class was responsible for starting the inflationary process. In fact, the two phenomena have nothing to do with one another.
If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE
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ECONOMISTS distinguish between two kinds of inflation: “demand-pull” and “cost-push.” Demand-pull inflation is said to occur when there is excess demand in a situation where supply cannot be augmented, because full capacity output has been reached in one or more crucial sectors. Wartime inflation is a classic example.
In India during the pre-neoliberal, dirigiste period, inflation was often the result of an insufficient grain output relative to demand, arising from a poor harvest.
Cost-push inflation on the other hand occurs when supplies can be augmented, as the economy is nowhere near full capacity in key sectors, but one of the classes tries to raise its share of output, by demanding a higher price for the input it provides, while other classes are unwilling to lower their shares, giving rise to a tug-of-war, which manifests itself through inflation.
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