Philippe Herlin

The dollar's good shape is in stark contrast to other major currencies, but paper currencies are all plagued by the insidious evil of inflation. The dollar is doing well at the moment, but as the saying goes, "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king".

The accurate measurement of inflation is particularly important in the current period. Prices are slipping at levels not seen in decades. Households and businesses need to have the best possible perception of this in order to adjust their behavior. Unfortunately, national statistical institutes t...

Government officials speak of a "peak" in inflation... But inflation is here to stay, because its causes are still present: the money printing of central banks to finance budget deficits, the energy transition which increases the price of electricity, the ill-considered sanctions taken against Ru...

Without these OATi and OAT€i, the French debt rate would be at or above that of Italy. But the explosion of the cost of this indexed debt will make this subterfuge less and less tenable... Inflation-indexed bonds may not hide the misery much longer. France's debt will soon be watched with concern...

On July 12, the euro reached parity with the dollar, something that has not happened since 2003. The euro has lost 12% against the dollar since January 1, which is a lot in the massive and liquid foreign exchange market. What if this fall continues? The question must be asked. The fall of the eur...

"How inflation increases the cost of debt for the state", headlines Les Echos on June 30. So, the general belief is that a good wave of inflation will wipe out debts, but this would not be the case after all?

Historically, the European and North American economies have been closely linked. The figures show comparable growth rates and standards of living, even if the United States has always kept a lead over "old Europe". The current crisis, with the return of inflation and the war in Ukraine, crystall...

Inflation is here to stay. But the question now is: can it degenerate into hyperinflation?

The risk is there: "the most fragile countries are not Italy or Spain, but France, Greece and perhaps Portugal." What the Greeks experienced in the 2010s - and they are still paying the bill - could soon happen to the French.

Christine Lagarde's denial, its refusal to raise the key rate, and its apathy towards inflation, will prolong the weakening of the euro against the dollar, thus creating an additional cause of inflation (raw materials being paid in dollars, the fall of the euro mechanically increases their price)...

This important loss of purchasing power, imperfectly compensated by government subsidies, will lead us into a recession. The savers who put their trust in physical gold will preserve their savings, but this is only individual behavior; the governments that benefit from the money printing press wi...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released a statement: inflation rose to 8.5% in March over the last twelve months. A figure not reached since the records of the 1970s, and an increase that nothing seems to be able to stop.

We can already hear the leaders of Western countries blaming Putin for the rise in prices... It's very convenient, but it's not true: it's their money printing, to finance their deficits, which has long been feeding the current inflation. The war in Ukraine only reinforces and accelerates this tr...

The Russian central bank halts its gold purchases to give priority to private individuals. Hold on! Will the Russians be able to use it as a transaction currency next to the ruble? We will see. Russia and China have acquired large quantities of gold in recent years, certainly with an idea in mind.

As we slowly emerge from the Covid parenthesis, is a real rise in policy rates on the horizon? We can doubt it. The ECB will follow and not take the initiative, as usual. The rise in rates will therefore be very limited. Therefore, inflation is here to stay...

Inflation is already a destructive evil in itself, but its partial concealment reinforces its harmfulness by deceiving economic players about its real value. It is important to know that governments manipulate the money printing press, but also the measurement of the resulting price increase. Fac...

The leaders of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) have long promised us that their lax monetary policy would not lead to inflation, and that we should not worry, that it would be "transitory". They now concede that the transitional period could be prolonged, but co...

There is now too much debt in the economy, everywhere and at too high a level. The room for maneuver of central banks is considerably narrower...

The Danish bank, Saxo Bank, has become famous for publishing every year a series of ten "outrageous predictions" that are supposed to profoundly change our societies in the coming year. The exercise is difficult and these predictions rarely come true. But they have the merit of pointing out probl...

The ECB is making a mockery of the world: it is shirking its responsibilities (printing money, zero interest rate), it is being lax with the banking system (insufficient capital), it refuses to recognize the damage it is causing (bubbles in equities, bonds and real estate), it refrains from lectu...