Econ 102 Discussion Section 10 (Chapter 17) April 17, 2015 6. Lesson summary: Price indices and inflation Our mission is to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. When inflation is higher than expected, borrowers and employers gain at the expense of lenders and employees because borrowers and employers get to make payments with dollars that are worth less than was expected when the contracts were executed. Unexpected inflation may occur when the currently held macroeconomic model does not adequately account for new circumstances. Prices are determined by the equilibrium between aggregate demand and aggregate supply, but aggregate expenditure is the amount actually spent, revealing actual demand at current prices and aggregate supply.. For example, suppose it’s 1973, and you’ve just bought … If government bond rates are at 5% and inflation is 4% then the real rate of interest is 1%. If the inflation rate turns out to be lower than expected, the ex post real interest rate will be above the ex ante real rate and you will gain at the borrower's expense. d) Actual inflation is 3% and expected inflation is 3%. by the effects of inflation. Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. When there is inflation, the value of the money borrowers pay back is less. What happens if the inflation rate turns out to be different from what the borrower and lender expected? A) greater than; rise B) greater than; fall C) less than; rise D) less than; fall . When the dollar is losing value every year, the dollars you use to pay off your debt represent less actual purchasing power than they did when you first took out the loan. C: the actual rate of inflation will fall. For example, if inflation turns out to be higher than expected when the loan was agreed, the lender will get less than they had planned because inflation reduces the purchasing power of the interest earnings they receive. Debtors gain from inflation because they repay creditors with dollars that are worth less in terms of purchasing power. A) True B) False 260.Wealth will be redistributed from borrowers to lenders when expected inflation is less than actual inflation. Thus, borrowers benefit by repaying debts with money that is worth less. Moreover, correlation is not causation. Assume that the price level is constant in period zero. In the Fed's view, slack and tightness cause inflation and deflation. the borrower must pay back $100 in one year), inflation is good for borrowers and bad for lenders. Suppose the actual inflation rate turns out to be 4 percent. This means that the actual real interest rate, from the Fisher equation, is only 2 percent. Unemployment takes place when people have no jobs but they are willing to work at the existing wage rates.. Inflation and unemployment are key economic issues of a business cycle. Reducing inflation above target is relatively easy – solving deflation is more of an unknown quantity. 45. In 1973, inflation went from 3.6% in January to 8.7% in December. C. the unemployment rate will temporarily fall. When inflation is anticipated individuals take actions to protect themselves from the effects of inflation. 259.When actual inflation is less than expected, wealth is transferred from the borrower to the lender. b) Actual inflation is 3% and expected inflation is 5%. When the actual rate of inflation exceeds the expected rate: A: nominal wages will decline. Higher inflation is good for the borrowers. The latest UK inflation figures we have, for December, show a sharp rise to 0.6%. a. But before we get into the details, we first need to understand how inflation is measured. C) everyone benefits from the inflation. D) everyone is worse off from unexpected inflation When actual inflation is higher or lower than expected, somebody wins. Phillips Curve: Inflation and Unemployment. For example, the federal government, because it is the U.S. economy’s biggest debtor, gains from unanticipated inflation and loses when inflation is less than anticipated. Inflation is an economic term describing the sustained increase in prices of goods and services within a period. details. D: firms will experience rising profits and thus increase their employment. Suppose your investments are generating $2,000 per year in nominal terms, but that $2,000 won’t buy the same amount of goods and services as it did when you invested it, due to inflation. Exercise 15.5 Inflation, expected inflation, and the bargaining gap. If the inflation rate turns out to be lower than anticipated, the lender gains at the expense of the borrower (assuming the borrower is able to make the greater real payment). The reason is.... borrowing/ lending is also a speculations game. reverse is true if inflation is more than expected. 3. This is especially true if inflation is higher than expected. Benefits which are index-linked will be rising than less than expected, making the UK government benefit bill less. B) a lower rate of inflation for any level of unemployment. If you’re currently in debt, inflation is your friend. a) Actual inflation is 5% and expected inflation is 3%. c) Actual inflation is 5% and expected inflation is 5%. When the actual rate of inflation is less than the expected rate: A. the unemployment rate will temporarily rise. Government finances. Interest rates decrease as expected inflation declines since the interest rate charged by a lender reflects, in part, a hedge against being paid back in dollars whose value has been eroded by inflation (this is called the Fisher Effect after the early 20th century Yale economist … Assuming that loans must be paid back according to a nominal amount (i.e. Anticipated inflation, inflation that is expected, results in a much smaller redistribution of income and wealth. Money illusion is most likely to occur when inflation is unanticipated, so that people’s expectations of inflation turn out to be some distance from the correct level. When inflation is expected, it has few distribution effects between borrowers and lenders. Lenders and borrowers, wage-earners, taxpayers, and consumers may all be affected. When lenders are uncertain about future inflation, they charge borrowers higher interest to compensate for the loss of purchasing power caused by inflation. Inflation targeting is the antidote to the stop-go monetary policy of the past. D) higher than expected inflation rates and lower unemployment rates. Dinner table conversations where you might have heard about inflation usually entail reminiscing about when “everything seemed to cost so much less. The real interest rate is the rate of interest necessary for borrowers and lenders to conduct business without any expectation of inflation. The figure below shows two different short-run Phillips curves depicting these four points. B. firms will increase their output to recoup their falling profits. Suppose that this economy currently has an unemployment rate of 3%, inflation of 2%, and no expected future inflation. Unexpected Inflation A situation in which the inflation rate is higher than economists, regulators or others anticipated. When inflation is fully anticipated there is much less risk of money illusion affecting both … If the actual and expected inflation rates turn out to be the same, there will be no wealth redistribution effect. Not because your add. Your real return will be less than $2,000, perhaps by quite a bit, depending on the inflation rate. B) the borrowers gain and the lenders lose. There is even less support for this view than for the idea that slack, or the lack thereof, can reliably forecast inflation. 16. Inflation can also affect the real interest paid by borrowers to lenders. SRPC 20. Tracking Inflation. However, in the 1970s, inflation was higher than expected – and higher than the bond yield on a government bond. If actual inflation is less than expected inflation, actual real wages will be _____ expected real wages and unemployment will _____. The increase in aggregate demand will raise the rate of inflation to 4 per cent consistent with the unemployment rate of 2 per cent. Inflation affects everything from mortgages to the cost of our shopping and the price of train tickets. This is good news for the borrower: he gets a loan at a lower rate than he expected. In economics, inflation refers to the sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. The Fed responded by raising the fed funds rate from 5.94 points in January 1973 to 12.92 points by July … The fall in inflation is good for the government in the short-term. If the central bank decreases the money supply such that aggregate demand shifts to the left and unemployment rises to 5%, then inflation would (increase/decrease) to 0%. In the sticky-price model, if no firms have flexible prices, the short-run aggregate Keynesians are aware of these … A) True B) False 261.In times of rising prices, lenders will always benefit at the expense of borrowers. For one, it could happen when the rate of interest earned by lender for that year falls short of the inflation rate that year. Aggregate expenditure is the total amount spent for the economy's output by all households, firms, foreigners, and the government. Employers and employees must estimate inflation when agreeing to long-term labor contracts. If workers and firms raise their inflation expectations, I borrow with a particular rate expecting more inflation and if it is not so , I get hurt while the lender is not. The Fed essentially controls the money supply by raising or lowering rates, which contracts or expands supply, respectively. C) a higher rate of inflation for any level of unemployment. 21. A) the same tradeoff between inflation and unemployment. Use the same axes as in Figure 15.10 to plot inflation, expected inflation, and the bargaining gap in a single diagram. Investor and public expectations of current or future inflation.These expectations may or may not be rational, but they may affect how the market reacts to changes in target interest rates. borrowers would be hurt. B: the unemployment rate will temporarily rise. For example in the 1960s, markets expected low inflation so the government were able to sell government bonds at low rates of interest rates. Currently, interest rates are low to accommodate growth. To some, it signifies a struggling economy, whereas others see it … You’ll want to adjust for inflation whenever you can. If the actual inflation rate is less than the expected inflation rate, then: A) the lenders gain and the borrowers lose.