The Economist May 14th 2022 17
Letters
Zero tolerance on inflation
You correctly noted that there
is “nothing special” about the
Federal Reserve’s 2% average
target for inflation, except that
it “has promised it in the past”
(“The Fed that failed”, April
23rd). Indeed, when Anthony
Diercks, an economist on the
central bank’s board, reviewed
every optimal monetarypolicy
paper made available to the
public since the mid1990s, he
was unable to identify a single
one citing 2% as the ideal.
Most papers—and the most
highly cited ones—recom
mend an inflation rate of
around 0%.
william luther
Associate professor of
economics
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida
The stern warning in your
special report on central bank
ing (April 23rd) against over
burdening central banks is
appropriate. Taking on too
many tasks, such as focusing
on inequality and other social
ills, risks undermining their
independence by drawing
them into politics. After his
retirement from the Bank of
England, Mervyn King wrote
that, “the biggest threat to the
future and independence of
central banks comes from...
promising too much.” The Fed
and others have already gone a
fair way in informally taking
into account income dis
tribution and other matters of
an essentially political nature
into consideration.
An early example of
inserting politics into the Fed’s
remit, and a root cause of
many of its later problems, is
the HumphreyHawkins Act of
1978, which introduced a dual
mandate of price stability and
maximum employment. The
Fed has the unenviable task of
trying to balance these two
macroeconomic outcomes.
Like others it seems that the
Fed has over time favoured low
unemployment (running the
economy red hot) rather than
having been sufficiently alert
to early signs of inflation.
onno wijnholds
Washington,dc
Tellithowitis
A letterfromtheChinese
embassy’sspokesperson
referredtothewarinUkraine
as“aninternationaldispute
betweentwosovereignna
tions”(April30th),asif it were
somesortofmundanetrade
spat,ratherthanunprovoked
andbrutalmilitaryaggression
byRussia.Shewouldn’thave
hadtohuntfartofinda prece
dent.XiJinpinghasdescribed
China’sresponsetoinvasion
inthe1930sasa “warofresis
tance...whereChinaresisted
theinvasionofa foreignene
my”.Thisiscitedin“China’s
GoodWar”byRanaMitter,who
notesthattheChinesegovern
ment“haspromotedthenew
collectivememory”ofthe
secondworldwar“asa wayto
createa morallyweighted
narrativeaboutChina’srolein
theglobalorder”.
Thatmoralnarrativewould
bemoreconsistent,andthat
roleintheglobalordergreatly
moreeffective,if MrXi,his
embassyspokespersonand
theircolleaguesweretocall
outthesituationinUkrainefor
whatit trulyis.
andrewkorner
PortWilliam,Galloway
Cambridge’s cancel culture
As an alumnus of Gonville &
Caius college in Cambridge I
have watched its contortions
about Ronald Fisher with
dismay (“Window pains”, April
23rd). If the fellowship truly
wanted to take a principled
stand about its predecessors, it
could do no better than start
with John Caius himself, a
man who wanted to bar
scholars who were "deformed,
dumb, blind, lame, maimed,
mutilated (or) a Welshman"
from entry to the college. For
more contemporary relevance
it could turn to Jimmy Carr, a
graduate of Caius, who thinks
that the Nazi genocide of the
Roma is amusing.
To pick on Fisher, who held
views fairly unremarkable for
his time, is simply giving in to
those wishing to indulge in
some virtuesignalling. Raking
through the historical record
for dead people who held
views we now find unaccept
able is a fool’s game. Both
Churchill and Gandhi would
fall foul of such a process. It
consumes energy that would
be best directed towards
ongoing injustices.
paul watson
Cambridge
Drug lows
The use of ketamine to treat
depression is being promoted
in certain quarters (“Special k”,
April 23rd). In Canada, several
medical specialists have tout
ed its effectiveness. Some are
almost delirious in their en
thusiasm. I received ketamine
as an anaesthetic for surgery,
after being assured of its safe
ty. They said I would experi
ence a nice little "trip". I have
never used recreational psy
chedelic drugs. What a trip it
was. I awoke in a severe and
prolonged tearful state, with
profoundly suicidal thoughts.
Two years later the images and
sounds remain vivid and can
trigger those same thoughts.
This cavalier use of
ketamine is a modern iteration
of the psychiatric experiments
carried out in the 1950s at the
Allan Memorial Institute in
Montreal.
astrid ahlgren
Ottawa
Housing attachments
“Cottage industry” (April 23rd)
pointed out that granny flats,
or Accessory Dwelling Units as
they are known, “have taken
off in California...as house
prices have soared”. We have a
long tradition of these dwell
ings here. Allen Ginsberg’s
poem, “A Strange New Cottage
in Berkeley”, described the one
on Milvia Street where he and
Jack Kerouac lived in the
mid1950s. Unfortunately, it is
long gone.
Cottages used to be avail
able for shortterm rentals to
students and artists, but land
lords are now unwilling to take
the risk of expropriation by
tenants who won’t pay, won’t
leave, and who are supported
by an autocratic rent board.
tom burns
Berkeley, California
Kind regards
I would have enjoyed Bartle
by’s advice on “How to sign off
an email” more had I not been
conscious of having commit
ted pretty much every episto
lary sin listed (April 16th). One
sin omitted was the sad line
that often precedes a signoff.
“No worries if not” negates
everything that has gone
before, and always make me
cringe for the writer’s lack of
selfworth. Anyway, thank you
in advance for planning to
print my letter. Although no
worries if not.
lucy beresford
London
Automated corporate signoffs
can be a bore, especially when
they include legal shields,
equivalent to “by reading this
message you implicitly agree
not to use it as a reason to sue
us”. More interesting is the
signature that all employees at
the International Institute for
Management Development
(imd) are encouraged to use: “I
am sending this email at a time
that suits me. Please feel free
to respond at a time that suits
you.” It is a clear expression of
respect for the notion of work
life balance that our hyper
connected lives tend to
disregard much too often.
bruno lanvin
President
Smart City Observatory
imd
Lausanne, Switzerland
Bartleby’s signoff is ohso
2010s. Today it is also neces
sary to state your preferred
pronoun (she/her) and that the
message was sent from the
traditional, ancestral and
unceded territory of the (fill in
the blank) people.
brent sutton (he/him)
West Vancouver, Canada
The traditional, ancestral and
unceded territory of the
Squamish people
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