Does not the price increases suffered by the Gatsby count as inflation too?

Sir, Wolfgang Münchau refers, as so often is done these days, to the problem of low inflation, and which has even caused “Germany´s conservative central bank to call for wages to rise faster than in the past”, “A desperate Bundesbank has abandoned principle” August 4.

But the fact that there is no inflation recorded could also be a result of how we measure it. For instance, if our inflation basket included assets Plutocrats buy, like stocks, prime property, paintings, collectibles and other fancy stuff, we would certainly observe a quite high inflation… something that by the way should be expected considering how money, assisted by quantitative easing and fiscal deficits, has primarily flooded their pockets.

And really, talking about money which has lost purchasing power… what about all those savings that now buy so much less because of the low interest rates?

And so of course there is inflation… but perhaps not where some would like it to be… though I must confess that, inflation for the plutocrats and no inflation for the poorer, does indeed sound like a Piketty designed plan to combat inequality… could it be a targeted financial repression?

No!, as I have mentioned so many times before, much more important is it for Münchau, and for the Bundesbank, to take some time out to reflect on how the European economies are becoming weaker and weaker, as a result of the risk taking austerity imposed by the Basel Committee´s risk-weighted capital requirements for banks.