by David Brady, Jr.
Mises.org
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Inflation or the managerial class?
Inflationism is as much a tool as it is an ideology and a phenomenon. Inflation, of course, promotes consumption at the moment as prices change faster than incomes. It benefits borrowers at the expense of lenders. It benefits first and earlier receivers—those closest to the money spigot—at the expense of later receivers. It also provides the perfect tool for the managerial class that James Burnham and Sam Francis describe for the further expansion and centralization of power.
Their theory rests upon the idea that business and the state have become fused through a class of bureaucrats and managers working hand-in-hand. The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were obvious examples, but Burnham also saw the New Deal as another. A flaw can be found in Burnham’s identification of the New Deal as part of the managerial revolution he observed, though.