Word: brittan
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Asian societies have adapted better to inflation, partly because their people have been less rigid in their expectations. Japanese workers, for example, who are fiercely loyal to their firms, are willing to accept pay cuts during hard times. Says Samuel Brittan, a leading British economist: "The one part of the world in which there is real wage flexibility is Southeast Asia...
...excessive strength. Jan Tumlir, chief economist for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva, described European complaints as a "demand that the U.S. create more money in the hope that interest rates will fall." He said that this would be a recipe for more inflation. Samuel Brittan, assistant editor of London's Financial Times, agreed. Said he: "Whatever the U.S. economy does, the Europeans are going to grumble. If the U.S. concentrates on stabilizing its economy, that is the best it can do for itself and for the world...
...become known as Thatcherism and Reaganomics are now running into political difficulties in Britain and the U.S., the board members were generally sympathetic toward this type of restrictive program. The panelists said that one of the major problems faced by both governments is that the policies were oversold. Said Brittan: "What went wrong was the claim that there were going to be extremely rapid results as soon as the policies of less government intervention in the economy were installed. Neither Ronald Reagan nor Margaret Thatcher could admit that governments cannot reverse long-term historical trends overnight...
Many American economists now predict a reduction in inflation to around 8% by year's end, and growth in real terms of a modest 2.3%. Said Brittan: "A lot of the relative optimism depends on a quirk in your Consumer Price Index, which can show substantial short-term fluctuations with little change in the underlying rate of inflation." The annual core inflation rate in the U.S., which is closely linked to wage rates, is now about...
With the end of the recession just starting to appear on the horizon, Western Europeans will have to begin thinking about the long-range policies that will give them a solid foundation for future economic growth. It will take strong politicians and firm economic policies to do that. Brittan borrowed a line from Shakespeare's Henry V to sum up Europe's economic mission: "He which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart...