Professor Milton Friedman argues that' Inflation is created by Government and by no one else.' Who is to blame for the inflation which has been growing steadily for years and now threatens to accelerate out of control? Greedy businessmen? Irresponsible trade unionists? Spendthrift consumers? According to MILTON FRIEDMAN , Professor of Economics at Chicago University, none of these is to blame: they are merely scapegoats invoked by the true culprit -government. In Britain, he says, successive governments, irrespective of party, have persistently created money in excess of the supply of goods and services. Inflation is the inevitable result. On the other hand there is no problem about how to stop inflation: growth in money supply must be reduced, even if this leads for a while to politically unpopular results such as slower economic growth and higher unemployment.
Professor Friedman argues this case with his critics before an invited audience at the Royal Institution, London.
Chairman Andrew Shonfield
Director STUART HARRIS
Producer DOMINIC FLESSATI
More about this subject: In Vision. Wednesday evening BBC2
Are we losing our headst: page 3