Central bankers, inflation and sustainability

I can't claim it's the most exciting title for a blog. In fact it's downright dull, but some things that are being talked about by central bankers raise questions for people concerned with sustainability. Ben Bernanke and Mark Carney, the soon-to-be Governor of the Bank of England, have both recently discussed linking monetary policy to nominal economic growth rather than real economic growth. This would be a major shift. Not only might it put at risk the dis-inflationary achievements of the past 30 years, but by triggering accelerated growth in the current unsustainable economic model it will accelerate environmental damage. (To some extent the horrible balancing act of growth and environment is typified by the UK Government's decision to approve fracking, which may boost growth but at the expense of carbon emissions.) read more