Yellen on inflation, deflation and stagflation

Janet Yellen in her recent speech reviews all the latest issues in US economy:

if you listen to popular business news channels, you might hear a drumbeat of concern that the Fed could let inflation get too high. Those who hold this view point to the rise in Treasury yields and commodity prices this year as signs that runaway inflation is on the horizon.  They muster three arguments. The first is that the Fed has pumped up the money supply and expanded its balance sheet to fund its financial rescue programs, potentially igniting inflation. The second is that the Fed runs the risk of repeating the errors of the 1970s by focusing on mistaken views of economic slack rather than rising prices. The third is that large fiscal budget deficits will create higher inflation. I take all of these concerns very seriously and will address each in turn.

Central Bankers chatting now!!

This Riksbank press release says:

On Thursday, 2 July, at 1 pm, the Deputy Governor Barbro Wickman-Parak will chat via the Riksbank’s website, www.riksbank.se, about the monetary policy decision and the conclusion of the Monetary Policy Report. Questions can be submitted from Thursday 2 July at 10 am via the Riksbank’s website, www.riksbank.se.

I have not seen this anywhere so far. Central Banker chatting and responding to questions of the public! Wow! This is quite good as the Riksbank  is making itself heard and accessible to public. This surely provides confidence to the public that central bank is after all making decisions for the public’s welfare.

I had just pointed a while backthat Riksbank has been given a award for making its various reports comprehensible to members of the general public who are interested in reading them. It surely is making rapid strides in giving a new meaning to the central bank communications.

It will be great if Riksbank published the transcript of the chat session as well. It might teach people a thing or two about writing economics in a simple language and clarify the role of central bank as well.

PS.

If visitors are aware of any other central bank doing the same, please let me know.

Doing Business in India report

World Bank’s Doing Business Initiative has released a report on India. The summary is here and full report is here (heavy pdf file).

Mint has an interviewof Penelope J. Brook, of IFC explaining the broad findings. Some more findings on DB BLog. And here is a reminder on what DB Report tells you:

Doing Business in India does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to companies or investors, nor all of the factors that affect competitiveness. It does not, for example, measure security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, labor skills, the underlying strength of institutions or the quality of infrastructure. Nor does it focus on regulations specific to foreign investment.