Inflation distorts prices, erodes savings, discourages investment,stimulates capital flight, inhibits growth, and makes economic planning anightmare. During the past decade, several advanced economies have takena new approach to the age-old problem of controlling inflation throughmonetary policy...

The phenomenon of substantial peacetime budget deficits over the past20 years has been traced to the burden of entitlements, a slowdown ineconomic productivity, and demographic and macroeconomic shifts in theindustrial countries. Though smaller and structurally different, deficitsin developing...