In return for the bailout, Bangkok must meet certain stringent conditions -- such as reducing the current-account deficit and keeping inflation under control -- through a tough austerity program.
In particular, conservatives would argue that the official Consumer Price Index was over-stating the rate of inflation, thereby under-stating the rate at which things were improving.
On inflation, the Fed chairman said that while high energy prices continue to be a source of risk, ongoing productivity gains in the labor market should keep wage increases--still the biggest driver of overall inflation--under control.
Besides, this latest revolution is being conducted under perfect conditions--no inflation, no war and a Fort Knox of risk capital available to all.
Mr Osborne scrapped the annual fuel tax escalator - a mechanism under which duty rose by 1p above inflation every year - and cut fuel duty by 1p in March's Budget.
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Taking those effects into account, CBO estimates that under the extended-baseline scenario, real (inflation-adjusted) gross national product (GNP) would be reduced slightly by 2025 and by as much as 2 percent by 2035, compared with what it would be under the stable economic environment that underlies most of the projections in this report.
The 10-year Treasury yield is just under the latest annual inflation rate of 1.7%.
Under the Bretton-Woods system (1948-1971) inflation averaged 2.5% p.a.
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Given the 3.6 percent inflation rate over the past year, at 4.50 percent current mortgage rates represent a premium over inflation of under 1 percent, or less than one-fourth the historical average.
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Because of higher inflation, real returns on fixed-income investments were negative under the Democrats, ranging from -0.1% a year for long-term corporates to -0.8% for long-term government Treasurys.
Inflation is under control, if a little above the target of 0-2%, and the euro is currently trading at about the same rate to the dollar as it was when he first ushered it into the world in 1999.
Wage-price controls could then be imposed to suppress inflation, just as happened under President Richard Nixon.
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Some argue that the Fed's inflation-fighting credibility means that investors think price pressures will be kept under control.
Despite an initial big fall in its currency, the real, after Brazil abandoned its exchange-rate peg, inflation in 1999 was within its target range at just under 9%.
The MPC has "looked through" the supply shocks that have hit the economy and pushed up inflation over the past few years - just as it might have done under a nominal GDP regime.
We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.
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In America, Britain and Germany ten-year bond yields under 2% are now lower than the explicit (or implicit) inflation targets of their central banks.
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While her government reduced annual inflation from the double-digit figures of the 1970s, it was only in the 1990s that inflation came under control.
But he might not like a further corollary: under a target-zone system, responsibility for exchange-rate management, as well as for controlling inflation, has to be given to the same policymaker.
It is true that bond yields usually start to rise once recoveries are firmly under way, because investors expect central banks to raise short-term interest rates in order to hold down inflation.
"It now actually has a target for unemployment - 6.5% unemployment with an inflation override - that's the sort of imagination that is actually putting a floor under the US economy and allowing it to continue to move forward, " he told the BBC.
But the sooner the public finances are brought under control, the sooner the country can afford a more flexible exchange-rate policy without risking a return to inflation.
With inflation under much better control, floating exchange rates (China is a big exception) and well-stocked foreign-exchange reserves now dominate in the emerging world, providing protection against falling exports and flighty foreign investors.
But starting in 1983, the inflation beast defeated, a new era of vigorous growth got under way, based on innovation and long-term investment.
He liked to portray himself as a pro-business liberal reformer but under him Italy has utterly failed to abandon a model that used lira devaluations to offset inflation and stagnant or falling productivity.
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