Lagarde’s New ECB Starts With Old Question of Missing Inflation
Five years of the day the European Central Bank announced massive injections of cash to avoid deflation, President Christine Lagarde wants to know why the price growth is still as mediocre. Maxim decades economist Milton Friedman that inflation is "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon" - implying that prices will rise if you create enough money - it is under stress. The ECB has stopped beating its target sustainably, much of the rest of Europe has struggled similarly, and Japanese prices have been in the doldrums for a generation. While the US Federal Reserve has been a little better, with fiscal support, the authorities are not scratching their heads in a strategic review. Now Lagarde intends to decide their own comprehensive review of the ECB at a meeting two days from Wednesday, half a following decade his predecessor, Mario Draghi, announced quantitative easing as the ultimate tool for restoring price stability. Policymakers want a convincing explanation of