Savings-Recycling Public Employment: Vickrey's Assets-Based Approach to Full Employment and Price Stability

Given these views, it is not surprising that Vickrey vehemently rejected the notion of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), and any kind of "natural" rate of unemployment, calling the latter "one of the most vicious euphemisms ever coined" (Vickrey 1992b, 341). At the heart of the NAIRU and the natural rate of unemployment are the beliefs that a trade-off can exist between unemployment and inflation and that, inflation being the greater evil of the two, some unemployment is necessary to guarantee price stability.