How the Amazon-Google-Uber effect sets inflation | Mohamed El-Erian

Tech innovations have driven the drift down in prices - policymakers ignore such forces at their peril

Debates about inflation in advanced economies have changed remarkably over the past decades. Setting aside (mis)measurement issues, concerns about debilitatingly high inflation and the excessive power of bond markets are long gone, and the worry now is that excessively low inflation may hinder growth.

Moreover, while persistently subdued - and, on nearly $11tn (8.7tn) of global bonds, negative - interest rates may be causing resource misallocations and undercutting long-term financial security for households, elevated asset prices have heightened the risk of future financial instability. Also, investors have become highly (and happily) dependent on central banks, when they should be prudently more fearful of them.

Related: Trump's trade policy is a hot mess of conflicting goals - with few winners | Jeffrey Frankel