query on structural inflation

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The structural view of inflation in the US suggests that once built into
the normal operations of the economy, the wage-price spiral and similar
inertial processes tend to persist unless there is a deep or long-lasting
and thus painful recession (or successful incomes policies or similar major
structural change). One part of this is an asymmetry: it is easier for the
economy to "catch"  the disease of built-in inflation than to rid the
economic body of the illness. Post Keynesians suggest that the solution is
the application of incomes policies (or similar structural changes), while
conservatives suggest that it's best to prevent the disease in the first
place (the economic equivalent of "safe sex").

Can someone point me to the theoretical and, more importantly, the
empirical literature on these hypotheses, especially with regard to asymmetry?

please reply off-line (especially those on the PKT list, since I have
currently paused my receipt of the on-line discussions).

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine