A Qualified Defense of Functional Finance: Secular Stagnation, Growth and Inflation

The uncertainty about growth, the return of inflation and the need for an energy transition are renewing the economic policy debate. If the situation was previously referred to as secular stagnation, other names are emerging: stagflation reflation. Beyond the diagnosis, what use should be made of monetary or fiscal policy in an environment of high debt? This issue is all the more important as the European rules of budgetary coordination are being questioned. Based on concrete examples, this article asserts the central role of fiscal policy in relation to monetary policy. This development should be understood as a rehabilitation of “functional finance” in a measured form. The implications for the mandate of central banks and the European fiscal framework are developed.