Sir, - As a scientist-technologist I am as bewildered as that other peculiar entity, "the man in the street", by the extraordinary jostling of the debate on the economy between those inanimate entities, inflation and bank interest charges. Although inflation is creeping up on us to nullify purchasing power, we are being told that the trade unions, in order to stabilise the value of their member's wage packets, are really inducing further inflation. Anyone whose memory is long enough will recall the "stagflation" of the post-1960s economic boom.
At a course on techno-economics at the University of Acton in Birmingham in September 1972, we were advised to read an article dealing with Enoch Powell MP on the subject of inflation which had just been published in the London Times. Powell by no manner or means could be construed as a disciple of that much-maligned philosopher-economist of the 19th century, but rather was of the extreme right wing of British politics. Nevertheless, he was being extremely frank. A sentence summarises his theme, viz: "All inflation is caused by governments; or, putting the same thing negatively, there would be no inflation unless governments caused it."
Powell's thesis specifically counters the view that the cause is the trade union movement, "using what is alleged to be its economic and political power to secure a big increase in the incomes of its members".
His analysis may be put simply in rhyme:
Nothing is for nothing,
Nothing is out of the blue,
Nothing ever happens
Unless someone wants it to.
Since economic control within the EU does not lie with national governments, the epicentre of economic decision-making lies with the European Central Bank. It is no coincidence that with the fall in the value of the euro we are witnessing a catastrophic fall in the value of the punt. We need something better by way of explanation from the politicians and their satraps, the gobbledegook economists. - Yours, etc.,
Derry Kelleher, Greystones, Co Wicklow.