Money is the economy’s unit of account, the yardstick we use to calculate profit and loss, make contracts, specify debts and more.
It’s problematic when that yardstick keeps changing length, when you have to worry about how much stuff a dollar will buy in the future.
Nonetheless, the Federal Reserve, like all major central banks these days, doesn’t aim for complete price stability, or in other words, for 0 percent inflation.
Mainly because an economy with modest inflation will normally have somewhat higher interest rates than one with zero inflation — a phenomenon known as the Fisher effect.
And this means that low but positive inflation gives the Fed more room to cut rates in the face of a recession.
Persons:
Flation, Fisher
Organizations:
Federal Reserve