Il y a des jours où on aimerait les ralentir avec une solide dose de Ritalin, tellement nos gouvernements nous étourdissent par leur hyperactivité. Mais il faut bien admettre que les défis actuels exigent encore des actions énergiques, qui n’iront pas sans pots cassés.
Les gouvernements du Québec, toutes couleurs confondues, ont toujours été interventionnistes. Toutefois, la frénésie actuelle du cabinet Legault rappelle les premiers mandats Lesage et Lévesque ; pas tant pour la création de nouvelles institutions que par l’intense utilisation des leviers existants.
Le combat contre la COVID-19 fait toujours la une avec la troisième ronde de vaccination, les règles sanitaires allégées et le renforcement de notre…
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem, like U.S. Fed chairman Jerome Powell, is clearly starting to view continuing high inflation with concern. A change is coming in monetary policy. With demand outrunning supply, our central banks’ policy interest rates need to rise – and may rise a lot.
Before COVID-19 triggered a monetary explosion, inflation in Canada and the United States had been so low for so long that most people could ignore it, and ignore monetary policy as well. Inflation was reliably close to 2 per cent year after year. The Bank of Canada’s overnight rate, its benchmark policy rate, and the U.S. equivalent, the Fed Funds rate, moved much less than they had when inflation was high and variable. How central bank policy…
Inflation has risen to almost five per cent and the year-end deadline for the federal government and the Bank of Canada to announce a new monetary policy framework is barely three weeks away. Should we be nervous?
Since 1991, the framework has been an inflation-control target, and since the end of 1995 that target has been two per cent. That system has been a striking success. The CPI’s average increase over the 25 years from 1995 until the onset of the pandemic was 1.9 per cent annually. Previous five-year renewals of the inflation-control agreement were quiet affairs with only minor tweaks.
Not so this time. COVID’s hit to productive capacity has combined with massive monetary and fiscal stimulus to push inflation well…
