The purpose Three economists attempt to demonstrate that the ECB’s mission – to stabilise inflation at around 2% – makes no sense in the current period. That this policy of raising interest rates manifests an “ideological blindness” and implements a brutal class logic. Indeed, for them, inflation is not a problem in itself but is the result of a “conflict of distribution” of the economic cake between companies and employees, between profits and wages. “Inflation assumes that certain incomes increase: it creates winners.”
The interest The three authors, who are part of the Economistes Atterrés, supported the program of the New Popular Front. This economic essay therefore dissects the theoretical foundations of an alternative policy knowing that, for the lecturers Eric Berr and Jonathan Marie, and the economist from INSEE teaching at Ensae Sylvain Billot, “inflation is political”. The measures they advocate – price controls, wage indexation, etc. – are therefore not surprises, with one exception: the extension of the scope of Social Security in order to satisfy basic needs (Social Security for food, Social Security for housing, etc.).
