Is monopoly power one of the reasons that the equity markets remain high nearly 10 years into a bull market? It is something I have begun to wonder about recently, since a lack of wage inflation is a key reason that the Federal Reserve is not moving faster to raise interest rates. A rate rise off the back of inflation is one of the most reliable ways to pop a market bubble. Yet many economists believe that one of the reasons that wage growth — a typical driver of inflation — remains relatively flat despite unemployment being at nearly pre-crisis lows is because of job-disrupting technology itself.
壟斷力量是不是股票市場保持近10年牛市的原因之一？這是我最近開始思考的一個問題，因爲，美聯準沒有加快升息步伐的一個主要原因是，薪資上漲停滯。在通膨支撐下升息，是刺破市場泡沫最可靠的手段之一。然而，許多經濟學家認爲，儘管失業率接近危機前的低點，但薪資成長——推升通膨的典型因素——仍然不溫不火的原因之一是，搶走人們飯碗的技術本身。