02/11/2017 - Alasdair Macleod: Central Banks Are Creating Economic Distortions & Inequalities
“Central banks must be increasingly aware that critics of monetary policy are getting some traction in their arguments, that not only have monetary policies failed in their objectives, but they are creating counterproductive economic distortions as well. Chief among these is the transfer of wealth that comes with monetary debasement .. An expansionary monetary policy rewards spendthrifts and penalizes savers. The benefits and costs are distributed unevenly, and are economically and socially disruptive. We have moved a long way from the Keynesian concept of deficit spending being limited to when the economy appears to be failing. Today, intervention has become continual, with the emphasis on monetary policy. Inevitably, the consequences must be distributional, otherwise the policy would not have been embarked upon in the first place .. The headline statement, that there is little or no evidence that monetary policy since 2008 has contributed to social inequality, is misleading, and deflects blame for society’s ills away from monetary policy. The implication is blame must lie with fiscal policy or free markets themselves. And while central banks and finance ministries apportion responsibility for policy failure, it never occurs to either party that ordinary people do far better running their own lives with sound money.”
