GWD-24 Q10 TO 12

      Is it possible to decrease inflation without causing a recession and its concomitant increase line 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 prices, 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 longterm growth.

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GWD-24-10

The passage suggests that the high inflation in the United States and many European countries in the 1980’s differed from inflation elsewhere in which of the following ways?

A.      It fit the rational expectations theory of inflation but not the inertia theory of inflation.

B.       It was possible to control without causing a recession.

C.      It was easier to control in those countries by applying tight monetary and fiscal policies than it would have been elsewhere.

D.      It was not caused by workers’ and employers’ expectations.

E.       It would not necessarily be considered high elsewhere.

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答案是E，但是不明白B错在哪里，感觉原文中but only by applying tight monetary and fiscal policies that sharply increased unemployment.而不是cause recession的政策应该也有B的意思啊。

这个例子就是支持要想降inflation，就必伴随recession 和unemployment上升的结果。这个例子也是两国家打败了inflation，only通过紧缩的货币财经政策（同时导致了unemployment飙升）。所以B不对啊。

这个题就看括号里的（by these countries’ standards）来做题。括号里的内容是考点！

晕~~  看了半天才明白

文章中的by these countries's standards说的是，以这些国家的标准来看inflation是高的，但是这并不意味着其它地方的inflation也高。所以E选项，it would not necessarily be considered high elsewhere