Tyler Cowen, Columnist

Inflation Is a Valuable Tool. Too Bad We Can't Use It.

Economics isn't the problem. Politics is.

November 4, 2016 at 11:00 AM UTC

Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the Marginal Revolution blog.

Tough sell.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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What if higher inflation were to resume? After all, recent forecasts have suggested the possibility of 4 percent inflation for the U.K., and in the U.S. core inflation is already slightly above 2 percent. Possibly there is less deflation coming from China, and the latest report on U.S. gross domestic product shows that economic growth may be heating up.

My biggest worry is about the politics, not the economics. I am not sure that the American system of government, in its current state, could handle a vigorous debate about inflation, which has become a tough sell.