The Political Economy of Asset and Consumer Price Inflation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v54i216.2133Keywords:
Classes, Germany, Inflation, Real Estate, Securities, USAAbstract
Consumer and asset price inflation are treated very differently in terms of economic policy. While rising stock prices are usually welcomed, rising prices for consumer goods are responded to with drastic monetary and fiscal policy measures. We explain this different treatment with a class-analytical perspective, which is, however, sensitive to cultural policy explanations due to the comparison between the USA and Germany. We discuss the drivers of inflation, the influence of financialization on asset price inflation, the differentiation of social classes along asset ownership and the respective distributional effects of both types of inflation.
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