GWD 24-12

norwaywinter

Is it possible to decrease inflation without causing a recession and its concomitant increase in unemployment? The orthodox answer is “no”. Whether they support the “inertia” theory of inflation(that today’s inflation rate is caused by yesterday’s inflation, the state of the economic cycle, and external influences such as import prices) or the “rational expectations” theory (that inflation is caused by workers’ and employers’ expectations, coupled with a lack of credible monetary and fiscal policies), most economists agree that tight monetary and fiscal policies, which cause recessions, are necessary to decelerate inflation. They point out that in the 1980’s, many European countries and the United States conquered high (by these countries’ standards) inflation, but only by applying tight monetary and fiscal policies that sharply increased unemployment. Nevertheless, some governments’ policymakers insist that direct controls on wages and process, without tight monetary and fiscal policies, can succeed in decreasing inflation. Unfortunately, because this approach fails to deal with the underlying causes of inflation, wage and price controls eventually collapse, the hitherto-repressed inflation resurfaces, and in the meantime, though the policy-makers succeed in avoiding a recession, a frozen structure of relative prices imposes distortions that do damage to the economy’s prospects for long-term growth.


24-12 The primary purpose of the passage is to




A) apply two conventional theories.




B) examine a generally accepted position.




C) support a controversial policy.




D) explain the underlying causes of a phenomenon.




E) propose an innovative solution.





answer: B.   How about C?

The support for "generally accepted "in the answer B:   most economists agree that tight monetary and fiscal policies, which cause recessions, are necessary to decelerate inflation

The support for"controversial" in the answer C:  Nevertheless,some governments’ policymakers insist that direct controls on wages and process, without tight monetary and fiscal policies

So, who can help me out for the answer C?

thanks in advance

zhangfan90

Most importantly, the author claims in the first couple of lines that "Is it possible to decrease inflation without causing a recession and its concomitant increase in unemployment? The orthodox answer is “no”. " It's quite an assertion. All other information provided in the argument has acutally led to this certain conclusion, including the "controversial policy" from most of the economics.
And, the policy is not so controversial either. In the argument. As you've pointed out, the argument asserts that "most economists agree that tight monetary and fiscal policies...", and, in my point, "some governments’ policymakers insist that direct controls on wages and process, without tight monetary and fiscal policies" is not so much as an adequate challenge against the point of most economists, that is, the control solution is at most an alternative, rather than a replacement, which could result the wording "controversial", to the monetary polocies. If we say something is controversial, in most cases, we mean that it is either wrong or right, either applicable or infeasible, or something like this.
This is my position. Wish it helps and open for discussion...

norwaywinter

thank you very much

I think I didn't get the sense of "examine". Your explaination is very clear.

lohabrianer

谁能帮忙准备解释一下，这里examine的精确意思？多谢！！！

springsound

ding...
1."examine" 可以當 "analyse" 來看嗎?
2.不懂作者用"orthodox"這個字,是用來褒還是貶?
3.好奇作者對文中的兩個方法的態度到底是怎樣?:
"tight monetary and fiscal posicies"與"direct controls on wages and process"
+ and -;
or, - and -,
看不懂看不懂....can someone help out..

Stefaniezhu

examine于analyse不一样的，examine是有考核的意思，下面红色的才是这篇文章的主题句，后面只提供了例子来证实，但并没有展开来分析为什么most economists

agree that tight monetary and

fiscal policies, which cause

(20) recessions, are necessary to



decelerate inflation
orthodox这里并没有褒贬之意，个人觉得
问中用一个Nevertheless来提出另一个观点，之后用一个unfortunately来表示作者并不favor这第二个观点，所以应该是一正一负

lohabrianer

次题选C， 文中提到两个views（注意，不只是一个）， 而作者支持第一个。
orthdox是经济学术语。

most economists agree VS Nevertheless, some governments’ policymakers insist
最后作者支持tight monetary and fiscal policy.  经济学，我的专业~~~

wswhdlp

次题选C， 文中提到两个views（注意，不只是一个）， 而作者支持第一个。
orthdox是经济学术语。

most  ...
lohabrianer 发表于 2012-10-26 20:58

作者确实支持第一个，可是怎么会是选C呢，

EvaCheng

我认为如果是examine第一个观点，那么还需要把第二个观点写出来并且削弱一下吗？

因此，此题是C

willgoeu

in the option A: is "general accepted position " come from"most economists agree "??