Honestly I think Bailey is a buffoon. What he and his committee of experts never factored in was that the biggest driver of increasing prices was NOT excess demand, prices were rising due to supply-side pressures and cost increases working their way through the system. About which dampening demand with higher interest rates, is completely the wrong response. He's kept interest rates far too high for far too long and all that has done is depress growth, make people poorer and ultimately due to falling demand, put companies out of business. I hear TGI's is another one to fall this morning. If people don't have spare cash in their pockets, they are not buying non-essentials and the high interest rates and energy costs are crippling peoples' mortgage payments and fuel bills.
If we had 4%, 5% growth and the economy was overheating - demand outpacing our ability to grow capacity - then fair enough. But that is hardly the situation now, is it.
www3.nhk.or.jp