The World is Broken, Part 2 – Playing the Blame Game

'Not all lack of inflation is created equal'

There’s always a motive…

That’s one way of thinking about anything a central banker says... no matter how logical it may seem.

Take the recent speech by European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on the impact of de-globalization, which was the focus of my earlier post, The World is Broken, Part 1.

In that essay, I quoted a friend who is no fan of Lagarde, but who agreed with some of her points... especially how globalization kept down inflation.

But after thinking it through my friend wondered whether by being so candid and logical, Lagarde might have had have an ulterior motive...

I suspect the issue of de-globalization, for lack of a better term, will potentially be used as an excuse by central bankers to increase their inflation targets. Maybe her speech was a crafty precursor to trying this.  

I am beginning to learn central bankers seem to like any excuse for more in…