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Abstract
Economists and politicians are still concerned by inflation, and have been more so during the last few years. Several theories have attempted to explain it, based on the main schools of thought that have emerged in Economics over the last century. Inflation has often been conceived as one of the elements of the process by which the economy reaches a balance ; an excessive supply of currency, or the pressures brought to bear by wage costs in conditions of almost full employment, have been mentioned. Some writers have therefore accused the States' intervention in monetary matters, others the inability of this intervention to control wages, or more generally to control incomes and prices. The persistence over the last few years of both a high unemployment rate and a high rate of inflation has made necessary a revision of these theories without their providing any greater proof of credibility. Others, therefore, have tried to give a more global picture of the problems by showing that the structures of our present-day economies give rise to the development of lasting inflationist tensions, or by seeing inflation as both an economic and a social problem, resulting from new structural relations between the economic and social groups. Without taking sides in this theoretical debate the writers of this article stress two facts. Inflation has a considerable effect on social and economic relations, mainly negative as far as individuals are concerned. At the same time, the desire of those in power to solve this problem must make use of credible policies which can not effect a return to price stability without economic and social cost.