We challenge the widely held belief that New-Keynesian models cannot predict optimal positive inflation rates. In fact these are justified by the Phelps argument that monetary financing can alleviate the burden of distortionary taxation. We obtain this result because, in contrast with previous...

The paper deals first with the characters of unemployment and inflation and their trend in the EMU. Then it underlines that EMU's institutions tend to reduce inflation to a minimum, while limiting fiscal interventions at the national and the European level. The policies implemented recently...