Competition & Deregulation Fight Stagflation

I just finished reading an interesting article that has caused me to rethink my position on the state of the economy and where it may be going. I've written before on how the current slowdown resembles what we saw in the '70s and earl '80s, but after reading this article, I'm reconsidering the affects that global competition may have on the ability of the U.S. economy to ever see the sort of rocketing inflation that we say a few decades ago.

It comes down to wages. If wages don't begin to rise (accelerate, actually), then inflation will remain relatively under control. This is an important fact to remember when you consider that a global economy means that nearly every sector, industry and individual business competes with international vendors willing to cut prices and snatch-away customers. The article uses the airline industry as an example, but the same logic could be extended to almost any market. Whereas airline ticket prices rose by more than one-third in the early '80s, they've seen less than a 2% rise even with the unprecedented rise in the cost of fuel. The reason? Competition and deregulation.

There are more airlines, even with all the trouble in the sector, than ever before. Travelers have more choice than ever before. The result is that airlines are left sitting between a rock and a hard place. With the rising cost of inputs to their operations, the decision is no longer whether or not to raise prices, but rather whether or not to continue operations at all. They are no longer able to raise prices because their competition won't. One of any competitor airlines that had been fortunate enough to hedge the cost of fuel earlier will have a cost advantage and will simply assume all customers should its competitors increase their prices. In economic terms, it suggests an inelastic short-term supply curve. What's interesting about this argument is that nowhere have I mentioned wages, which is traditionally considered to be the primary driver of inflationary pressure.

There's competition for jobs too. Just like there are more airlines fighting over travelers, there are more people fighting over jobs. Workers are less able than ever before to request a wage increase. There are fewer labour unions and those that do still exist are less powerful. Moreover, the ability to outsource leaves employers not with the decision to increase wages or lose employees, but rather whether or not to keep employees or outsource operations oversees where costs could be a fraction of what they are locally. The consequence of all this is that rapidly rising inflation may really be a historical artifact.