GREG MANKIW ON INFLATION: The Monetary Base is exploding. So what?

UPDATE: A hedge-fund reader emails:

The monetary high command is in full butt-covering mode now. There are so many ill-defined moving parts in their policy kit that both history and forecasts can be drafted to ensure their retrospective accuracy. Mankiw, by all accounts a decent bloke, labors under the Harvard brand, which has come to mean “From those wonderful folks who gave you Larry Summers…”

Ouch.