Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

august, 2022, the, of, blog, for, lawn, it, econcrit, friday, 26, wednesday, 24, thursday, 18, sunday, archive, labels, search, this, reference, art, was, heregraph, techniques, about, me, trefoil, want, my, identification, plants, why, did, linnaeus, call, lotus, general, theory, relativity, couple, last, night, headlines, clover, report, abuse,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (403), and (147), that (88), clover (51), inflation (50), for (45), lotus (45), debt (44), but (36), this (35), not (35), they (32), money (31), lawn (30), #trefoil (28), can (27), have (27), economic (26), was (25), more (25), you (25), from (24), what (24), too (24), much (24), all (23), interest (22), when (22), income (22), our (22), plants (21), growth (19), out (19), about (18), with (18), like (18), cost (18), august (18), story (18), economy (17), sbe (17), ancient (16), share (15), are (15), name (15), one (15), there (15), because (15), increases (14), rates (13), civilization (13), them (13), microclover (13), less (13), borrowing (13), years (12), problem (12), make (12), service (12), just (12), activity (12), rome (11), think (11), push (11), than (11), use (10), july (10), may (10), 2022 (10), will (10), had (10), grass (10), don (10), want (10), over (10), get (10), were (10), here (9), long (9), private (9), how (9), know (9), october (9), their (9), important (9), other (9), flowers (9), fodder (9), into (8), february (8), march (8), april (8), june (8), september (8), january (8), sector (8), only (8), increase (8), maybe (8), notes (8), lawns (8), things (8), reduce (8), people (8), some (8), time (8), happens (8), used (8), also (7), see (7), two (7), rate (7), enough (7), doesn (7), policy (7), november (7), december (7), way (7), friedman (7), its (7), has (7), most (7), leaves (7), species (7), news (7), borrow (7), pay (7), faster (7), called (7), linnaeus (7), links (6), says (6), financial (6), toynbee (6), thought (6), point (6), history (6), new (6), business (6), part (6), left (6), again (6), federal (6), quantity (6), year (6), away (6), gets (6), been (6), habit (6), micro (6), mowing (6), really (6), going (6), great (6), caused (6), good (6), plant (6), nitrogen (6), those (6), down (6), need (6), increasing (6), harvard (6), explanation (6), art (5), last (5), sense (5), late (5), without (5), search (5), terms (5), making (5), little (5), household (5), before (5), fall (5), decline (5), theory (5), archive (5), these (5), right (5), world (5), found (5), many (5), lot (5), org (5), even (5), why (5), different (5), white (5), keep (5), after (5), say (5), then (5), now (5), apparently (5), seems (5), never (5), fertilizer (5), sentence (5), question (5), points (5), sound (5), reserve (5), expensive (5), fed (5), which (5), said (5), huh (5), several (5), herbaceous (5), λωτός (5), greek (5), schmelzing (4), work (4), end (4), based (4), agriculture (4), agricultural (4), capitalism (4), home (4), page (4), economics (4), change (4), monetary (4), did (4), real (4), times (4), 1960 (4), gdp (4), milton (4), keynes (4), 1950s (4), sbt (4), works (4), economists (4), deal (4), phillips (4), curve (4), link (4), paper (4), old (4), big (4), let (4), fight (4), pinterest (4), facebook (4), blogthis (4), email (4), always (4), mow (4), smaller (4), well (4), okay (4), best (4), green (4), goes (4), looked (4), until (4), raise (4), existing (4), better (4), put (4), temperature (4), metaphor (4), everything (4), ago (4), saying (4), himself (4), word (4), corniculatus (4), birdsfoot (4), softest (4), fruit (4), persian (4), sacrifice (4), view (3), arthurian (3), fred (3), trend (3), explain (3), ages (3), industrial (3), article (3), during (3), first (3), century (3), start (3), under (3), blog (3), political (3), trump (3), depression (3), 2021 (3), slow (3), quigley (3), profit (3), wrong (3), cycle (3), labor (3), personal (3), dead (3), fix (3), finance (3), excessive (3), source (3), 1980 (3), general (3), look (3), both (3), credit (3), simple (3), own (3), thomas (3), george (3), roman (3), click (3), theories (3), united (3), states (3), demand (3), price (3), same (3), makes (3), greatness (3), policies (3), encourage (3), between (3), cannot (3), trouble (3), very (3), concept (3), posts (3), visual (3), obvious (3), hey (3), instead (3), variety (3), revert (3), fewer (3), lower (3), according (3), thing (3), benefits (3), maryland (3), back (3), happen (3), still (3), wouldn (3), using (3), came (3), post (3), means (3), brown (3), unless (3), take (3), who (3), made (3), comments (3), create (3), solution (3), sure (3), any (3), call (3), payments (3), could (3), percentage (3), mean (3), does (3), almost (3), rule (3), keeps (3), supply (3), result (3), agree (3), simkhovitch (3), huntington (3), applied (3), nectar (3), various (3), greeks (3), yellow (3), rich (3), genus (3), fellbloom (3), tree (3), something (3), herodotus (3), usually (3), sacrificer (3), gods (3), looking (3), low (3), profile (2), graph (2), commentary (2), stagnation (2), revolution (2), via (2), centuries (2), social (2), through (2), market (2), medieval (2), life (2), early (2), england (2), middle (2), classical (2), open (2), reddit (2), rise (2), reference (2), cycles (2), evolution (2), civ (2), prosperity (2), productivity (2), stuff (2), profits (2), levels (2), inequality (2), run (2), drive (2), action (2), 2023 (2), alternative (2), 202 (2), 2018 (2), couple (2), night (2), headlines (2), relativity (2), 2024 (2), words (2), appear (2), king (2), civilizations (2), else (2), repayment (2), got (2), where (2), study (2), leuchtenburg (2), free (2), choose (2), thru (2), 1970 (2), note (2), quotes (2), around (2), 2015 (2), baffling (2), 2014 (2), papers (2), pull (2), dilemma (2), employment (2), reconsidered (2), role (2), samuelson (2), solow (2), choice (2), level (2), recent (2), vol (2), palley (2), vigor (2), data (2), cause (2), slows (2), lost (2), sometimes (2), write (2), saw (2), looks (2), hearing (2), aggressive (2), clump (2), forming (2), week (2), appearance (2), become (2), misfit (2), trying (2), version (2), common (2), fail (2), regular (2), blends (2), buy (2), convinced (2), misfits (2), small (2), add (2), trifolium (2), types (2), compared (2), extension (2), gives (2), grow (2), environment (2), didn (2), wondering (2), soil (2), chesapeake (2), bay (2), ability (2), mix (2), perfect (2), having (2), stays (2), dry (2), already (2), pretty (2), idea (2), three (2), places (2), bad (2), your (2), savonen (2), writes (2), probably (2), anyone (2), pointing (2), mention (2), herbicide (2), compost (2), wasn (2), thinking (2), banning (2), list (2), might (2), turned (2), sites (2), short (2), help (2), often (2), doing (2), excess (2), high (2), costs (2), come (2), crisis (2), current (2), find (2), expenses (2), amount (2), 2007 (2), per (2), line (2), rises (2), disposable (2), comes (2), reduces (2), eases (2), order (2), expansion (2), support (2), quantities (2), accepted (2), reports (2), growing (2), knows (2), months (2), would (2), thus (2), stories (2), talk (2), size (2), assumed (2), roles (2), religions (2), cultures (2), expanding (2), drought (2), remember (2), each (2), relevant (2), members (2), bean (2), family (2), odd (2), described (2), except (2), horse (2), ever (2), herbage (2), prized (2), african (2), henry (2), liddell (2), robert (2), scott (2), english (2), lexicon (2), melilot (2), perseus (2), tufts (2), aquatic (2), soft (2), nice (2), ancients (2), named (2), sources (2), identified (2), identification (2), half (2), especially (2), rather (2), victim (2), persians (2), limb (2), flesh (2), magus (2), wife (2), pointed (2), water (2), weeds (2), stay (2), herbert (2), hoover (2), cnn (2), econcrit (2), powered, blogger, complete, techniques, helps, dark, republic, principate, unequivocally, capitalist, society, ownership, property, transaction, relations, simulations, nature, limits, anglo, saxon, norman, farming, laxton, village, survey, peasants, advances, technology, 800, 1000, maritime, insurance, built, priceonomics, classes, case, culture, ups, downs, 900, atlantic, collapse, written, arctic, ice, andy, blunden, taking, malthus, seriously, guilds, religious, preceded, 20th, convergence, divergence, portuguese, 1527, 1850, harbingers, modernity, injections, european, 1492, 1790, europe, riches, voxeu, sustained, daily, reckoning, eight, global, suprasecular, 700, michael, hudson, armstrongeconomics, licensed, creative, commons, attribution, noncommercial, noderivatives, international, license, report, abuse, whelan, guide, whack, mole, opinion, econ, throwback, bankers, plan, continuing, panic, secular, average, falsifiable, nobody, n2r, fried, man, measuring, math, ulc, piggies, google, overview, units, financialization, 19th, fallacy, composition, equilibrium, polarization, concerns, companion, ceiling, pressure, cmz, calculating, brooks, adams, decay, attitude, arnold, apr13, wage, thesis, 400k, smoothing, target, 1966, gothedistance, labels, 2019, 139, 2020, 204, 159, 118, 100, 136, 2025, blogthemes, pedestal, ozymandias, kings, mighty, despair, nothing, beside, remains, maintained, fate, determined, response, challenges, facing, ideas, philosophers, powerful, commonly, understood, indeed, ruled, encourages, discourages, indebted, attempts, describe, complex, interactions, overly, adages, lead, incorrect, conclusions, remarked, plurality, suffrages, guarantee, truth, difficult, discovery, such, cases, likely, show, respects, departs, prevailing, descartes, meyer, tasci, nathan, becker, stefan, zenker, shelley, themes, 10000, mercantile, timelines, wanniski, jude, volumes, abridged, tooke, inquiry, currency, principle, terborgh, rostovtzeff, empire, mullineux, crises, montagu, critical, essays, reviews, ferdinand, beginnings, perils, franklin, roosevelt, kissinger, meaning, reflections, spengler, kant, mischief, finley, ensor, 1870, 1914, delong, mathematical, logic, dalio, principles, machine, arrighi, twentieth, historical, statistics, upper, corner, book, icon, side, window, phrases, influenced, debate, norikazu, takami, retrospectives, cruel, 2016, stability, versus, full, objective, 1960s, aggregate, 2013, menu, retrospective, johannes, schwarzer, 1977, humphrey, pre, war, literature, 1974, hayek, prize, lecture, pretense, knowledge, counter, 1968, presidential, address, alt, 1962, arthur, okun, potential, measurement, significance, achieving, maintaining, stable, richard, lipsey, 1959, charles, schultze, 1958, 1937, mostly, abridgement, unabridged, spontaneous, steve, keen, hover, quote, quick, folder, tab, contents, levy, institute, publications, ebooks, forever, fadedpage, selected, troubles, costly, decent, jobs, scarce, regain, american, reducing, china, measure, fan, diagrams, screen, capture, slide, slideshare, presentatio, difference, surely, true, corresponding, velocity, mid, numbered, elections, weeks, yesterday, republican, candidates, heavily, adver, went, harbor, freight, day, traffic, parking, phrase, forced, conclude, cap, must, subscribe, atom, older, newer, comment, isn, helped, wait, lumpy, twice, reverts, losing, bigger, becomes, bother, convince, otherwise, bothers, sitting, keyboard, believe, uncommon, reseed, itself, naturally, regularly, maintain, necessary, site, behaviour, vested, solves, another, solve, osc, seeds, arose, suggests, eliminates, smallest, available, cloverlawn, answer, interesting, comparison, refers, varieties, repens, var, pirouette, pipolina, dutch, description, drop, yes, civilized, natural, concern, shows, progressed, harm, characteristics, fixing, enhance, turfgrass, applications, limiting, runoff, goal, law, broader, efforts, protect, second, university, latter, wanted, ban, opposite, dormant, hot, summer, floating, turn, burdock, burrs, sight, large, leaflets, every, leaf, lucky, blade, round, heart, shaped, belong, narrow, blades, silly, mind, ask, blank, requires, care, feeding, air, opens, kill, answers, hear, though, till, someone, carol, definitely, honorable, mentioning, beware, clippings, risk, residual, effects, useful, statesman, journal, consider, read, bunch, pages, ended, ten, summary, sunday, thoughts, clean, clear, done, today, creating, hand, recession, addition, raises, evidence, policymakers, focusing, attention, aware, interpret, attempt, compensate, few, finger, hold, contempt, blaming, tight, debts, takes, bills, spending, 2008, ourselves, meet, simply, consume, loss, arising, lose, creditors, worked, 0723, period, accumulate, excel, straight, simplify, picture, assume, portion, tdsp, dataset, percent, spend, covered, told, longer, lowering, resulting, substantially, headline, understands, creates, creation, responds, boil, number, along, factors, talked, causes, eventually, everybody, tell, coverage, whole, mentioned, above, sooner, later, accepts, bring, compare, relative, output, dollar, worth, understand, fast, slower, cool, off, overheated, hikes, leaving, key, thursday, wednesday, became, religion, economically, tired, particularly, carroll, wisely, knew, falls, trustees, survive, possibility, organized, require, myself, spent, reading, either, exhausted, term, declining, hurt, everyone, climatic, exhaustion, elements, importance, give, weight, opening, stresses, value, assigned, latinized, surprise, group, woody, jamesfolsom, place, garden, puzzlements, following, indicate, justify, decision, weak, strange, typical, autochthonous, native, fabaceae, sought, bees, therefore, foraging, lotuses, justified, item, whatever, lesser, community, apart, upgrade, interchangeably, separate, language, special, example, ones, provided, satisfying, narcotic, flower, beautiful, flute, music, enjoyed, eaters, olives, taste, resembling, dates, tunis, tripoli, jujube, georg, autenrieth, homeric, dictionary, horses, kind, cyrenean, shrub, whose, food, certain, tribes, coast, hence, lotophagi, iii, egyptian, lily, nile, north, hard, black, wood, flutes, intermediate, trees, providing, fenugreek, italian, melilotus, messanensis, graeca, trigonella, foenum, graecum, fragiferum, sort, confounded, sprengel, bot, hist, walter, merry, james, riddell, monro, 1886, odyssey, worse, searched, results, offer, interpretations, sumary, below, shortened, text, removed, references, necessarily, walk, identifies, four, total, talking, historiography, descriptions, poor, aim, define, correspond, analysis, texts, historiographical, arboreal, examined, botanical, category, pdf, abstract, antiquity, unfortunately, fastidious, since, favorite, liked, leave, decide, greenery, options, tenderest, translation, ritual, offering, god, human, animal, sheep, sacrificed, pray, blessings, alone, lawful, prays, reckons, among, cuts, portions, boiling, spreads, arranged, near, chants, song, birth, tradition, relates, offered, while, carries, uses, pleases, wrote, customs, enemies, greece, method, father, calling, guy, weather, rained, dying, nor, hose, started, survivors, despite, fairly, yard, wet, mower, drier, yet, die, should, anybody, humor, bird, sfoot, advertising, selling, kinda, maintains, features, paid, arm, leg, striking, color, dandelions, she, dig, wildflower, patch, rock, wall, foot, tall, impression, promptly, forgot, transplanting, friday, adds, stock, crashed, former, president, office, 1929, signaled, beginning,

Text of the page (random words):
huh harvard from the abstract in ancient times several plants were named lotus they assumed very important roles in the religions and art of many cultures but historiography and descriptions of the various plants called lotus have always been poor the aim of this work is to define what plant species correspond to the ancient name lotus through analysis of classical texts and other historiographical sources three types of lotus have been identified arboreal lotus herbaceous lotus and aquatic lotus from the sources examined several botanical species have been identified for each lotus category for my lawn i wouldn t want tree lotus or aquatic lotus i d want herbaceous lotus something green and soft and nice to walk on the huh harvard paper identifies not one genus of plants but four and several species in total as the plants the ancients described as herbaceous and fodder lotus apparently no one really knows for sure which plants they were talking about it gets worse at perseus tufts i searched for lotus clover the relevant results all offer interpretations of the ancient greek word λωτός that apparently means lotus in the sumary below i have shortened the text and removed links and references it looks like lotus is lotus but for herbaceous and fodder lotus lotus is trefoil is clover and clover is not necessarily the clover we know as clover λωτός the lotus here is a sort of trefoil or clover not to be confounded with the lotus of bk 9 according to sprengel bot hist it is the lotus corniculatus of linnaeus from w walter merry james riddell d b monro commentary on the odyssey 1886 λωτός name applied to various plants and trees providing fodder or fruit under fodder plants they list 1 clover trefoil trifolium fragiferum 2 fellbloom lotus corniculatus 3 fenugreek trigonella foenum graecum 4 melilot t graeca 4b italian melilot melilotus messanensis from henry george liddell robert scott a greek english lexicon λωτός the lotus name of several plants i the greek lotus a plant on which horses fed a kind of clover or trefoil ii the cyrenean lotus an african shrub whose fruit was the food of certain tribes on the coast hence called lotophagi iii the egyptian lotus the lily of the nile iv a north african tree from its hard black wood flutes were made from henry george liddell robert scott an intermediate greek english lexicon λωτός lotus 1 a species of clover 2 the tree and fruit enjoyed by the lotus eaters said to be a plant with fruit the size of olives in taste resembling dates still prized in tunis and tripoli under the name of jujube from georg autenrieth a homeric dictionary i think the name lotus was applied to plants that were the most special in some way for example the ones that provided the softest herbage the most satisfying narcotic the most perfect flower the most beautiful flute music the terms trefoil and clover described lesser members of the plant community except the greeks apparently thought their trefoil horse fodder was good enough to be called lotus the best horse fodder ever and apart from the upgrade to lotus for the fodder plant the terms trefoil and clover appear to have been used interchangeably if they even had the two separate terms in the ancient language i m still using trefoil to mean birdsfoot trefoil or whatever it is i have in my lawn but i do like that name fellbloom want to buy some micro fellbloom why did linnaeus call it lotus one more item from the huh harvard paper i thought this was odd the most typical of autochthonous native plants used for fodder is lotus corniculatus l fabaceae which has yellow flowers and rich nectar sought by bees therefore the reference to the genus lotus for herbaceous and foraging lotuses is well justified i think they are saying the yellow flowers and rich nectar justify linnaeus s decision to use lotus as the genus name for birdsfoot trefoil i was wondering why he used that name but their explanation seems a weak one and odd i think the paper seems to agree with the old greeks that birdsfoot trefoil really did make fodder that was lotus good that s a strange explanation by the way the l following the name lotus corniculatus is used to indicate that it was linnaeus himself who came up with that name for the species news to me here s a different explanation for linnaeus s choice of the name lotus this from puzzlements at in the garden jamesfolsom s place linnaeus himself assigned the latinized word lotus to members of the bean family at the time that was no surprise the greeks had long used the word for a group of small woody plants in the bean family i give this explanation more weight than the flowers and nectar explanation but huh harvard has a better explanation too their opening sentence stresses the economic value of the various plants called lotus in ancient times in ancient times the name lotus was applied to several plants and each had a relevant economic importance huh harvard also says the ancient lotus plants assumed very important roles in the religions and art of many cultures sure but i d add that lotus became important in art and religion because it was important to people because it was important economically as for myself the months i spent reading simkhovitch s rome s fall reconsidered and huntington s climatic change and agricultural exhaustion as elements in the fall of rome made the important even more important to me either simkhovitch s exhausted soil or huntington s long term drought caused the decline of roman agriculture but huntington and simkhovitch agree that the decline of agriculture and agricultural income caused the fall of rome remember roman civilization was based on agriculture declining agricultural income hurt almost everyone to have an expanding civilization you need an expanding economy particularly when civilization is organized so as to require expansion as carroll quigley so wisely points out keynes too knew that civilization rises and falls with the economy he said economists are the trustees not of civilization but of the possibility of civilization thus if economists cannot fix the economy the civilization cannot survive me i ve said that so often i m tired of saying it and now i talk about trefoil at august 26 2022 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday august 24 2022 the general theory of relativity at august 24 2022 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday august 18 2022 a couple of last night s headlines more rate hikes are in the works until inflation eases i m leaving out words but i got the key concept the concept is that inflation is caused by an overheated economy and if we have inflation we have to cool things off there is too much economic activity and we need less the economy is growing too fast and we need it to grow slower the policy is based on a metaphor about temperature the metaphor gives us a story we can understand but that doesn t mean that the policy is right milton friedman used to talk about the quantity of money relative to output he said there is too much money compared to the size of the economy too much money per dollar s worth of gdp i like this story because it is based on economic quantities not on the metaphor of temperature i m not saying that one of these stories is right and the other is wrong i bring them up because i want to compare the two inflation stories in the one story there is too much economic activity in the other there is too much money i think friedman would say that you can t have too much economic activity unless there is enough money to support all that activity thus the inflation that is caused by too much activity can only happen because there is too much money i pretty much agree with that story so does the federal reserve the news reports mention interest rate increases because interest rate increases will sooner or later reduce the growth of the money supply and will reduce the growth of economic activity and will reduce inflation the fed accepts this story it is the accepted story the trouble with that story is it is only a story about inflation it is not a story about the whole economy the only thing i ve mentioned above is inflation inflation and how we deal with it hey inflation is a big problem everybody knows if you don t know you can tell from the amount of news coverage of inflation in recent months but inflation is a result it is a result of economic activity the quantity of money and the rate of interest along with other factors that we have not talked about here and which don t make the news inflation is a result and we need to deal with all of its causes or our solution will eventually fail the last time inflation was as bad as it is now was 40 years ago or more i keep hearing it in the news and the years ago number keeps growing they make it sound like everything was great in the years when inflation was less but everything wasn t great in those years and you know it this is what happens according to the accepted story when inflation goes away everything is okay so when we get inflation to go away again everything will be okay again that is what the news reports boil down to and apparently that is what we think i think we know better let s go back to the inflation story and see what is left out back to the story of economic quantities not the temperature metaphor here is the story you can t have too much economic activity unless there is enough money to support all that activity the inflation that is caused by too much economic activity can only happen because there is too much money the federal reserve responds to inflation by increasing the rate of interest in order to reduce the growth of the money supply so how do interest rates come into the story the federal reserve understands that borrowing money creates new money and increases the quantity of money if we borrow less we will increase the quantity of money less if they make borrowing more expensive we will borrow less and the fed can raise interest rates to make borrowing more expensive so that is what the fed does they raise interest rates to make borrowing more expensive so that we borrow less to slow the creation of new money and reduce the growth of the money supply in order to reduce the expansion of economic activity and fight inflation as borrowing gets more expensive over time more and more people reduce their borrowing so the quantity of money increases less over time this reduces the growth of economic activity lowering the economic temperature and it reduces the resulting inflation so the fed keeps increasing interest rates until inflation eases substantially as the headline says that is the story of making inflation go away the part of the story that never gets told is what happens when inflation comes down and stays down for 40 years what happens people increase their borrowing for 40 years maybe longer as long as we don t get the inflation people keep borrowing more and our debt keeps increasing that s the short version but that s the story so now i have a question what happens when we borrow money not the inflation part we covered that what else happens when we borrow money we increase our debt when we increase our debt we increase the debt service payments we will be making out of our income this leaves less income to spend on other things as a rule our debt increases faster than our income household debt increases faster than household income private sector debt increases faster than private sector income and all sector debt increases faster than all sector income as a rule debt increases faster than income to simplify the picture of what happens assume that debt is always increasing faster than income that means that the cost of debt service is always increasing as a portion of our income to get an idea of how much debt service cost increases for household debt i looked at the tdsp dataset at fred that s household debt service payments as a percent of disposable personal income i had excel put a straight line trend from 1980 start of data to the high point at 2007 just before the financial crisis the trend line rises by 1 95 percentage points almost two percentage points of disposable personal income that worked out to a 0 0723 increase per year during the 27 year period doesn t sound like much but it does accumulate to almost 2 over the 27 years when the amount we pay for debt service increases we have less income left over for other expenses between 1980 and 2007 we lost 2 of our income to debt service if we were a business that 2 change might mean we had to take the money out of our profits and pay it to our creditors that loss of profit could put us out of business financial costs arising from the growth of debt could put us out of business two percentage points of profit is a lot to lose okay when debt increases the cost of debt service increases it takes more of our income to pay our bills we have less of our income left for other things like current spending until there is a problem like there was in 2008 we may find ourselves borrowing more to meet current expenses simply because our existing debt service payments consume so much of our income i m not blaming anyone for this i m just pointing out that it happens we end up borrowing more and increasing our debt because money is tight because so much of our income goes to service our existing debts if only a few people get into trouble this way at any one time we can point the finger and hold them in contempt and get away with it but if it happens to too many of us all at the same time you get what they call a financial crisis you can t fix inflation by focusing only on inflation you have to also pay attention to the growth of debt and the increase in debt service cost and if you are aware of the problem you can interpret inflation as the economy s attempt to compensate for high levels of debt and debt service costs you can come up with a better story to explain inflation i know it s not as simple as i m trying to make it sound here but the problem is not just inflation and the evidence that the problem is not just inflation is simple the policymakers solution to the inflation problem is to make borrowing money more expensive their solution to inflation is to make sure there is inflation in the cost of borrowing it makes no sense the federal reserve raises interest rates to fight inflation they raise interest rates to get people to borrow less to fight inflation instead of doing that or in addition to doing that what we need is to take some of the so called excess money that is already in the economy and use that excess money to pay down existing debt no it doesn t help if we borrow money today creating even more debt so that we can use that money to pay down debt no on the other hand it doesn t help if the federal reserve increases interest rates so much and so often that they create a recession maybe we need to ...