From: To: Jeffrey Epstein <[email protected]> Subject: Inflation and investing and the foundation. Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:57:39 +0000 Is this macroeconomics? Do you have a comment? See note below From: Tren Griffin [mailto Sent: Tuesda February 15, 2011 5:06 AM To: Subject: FW: Inflation and investing and the foundation. From: Tren Griffin Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 5:05 AM To: Bill Gates; Michael Larson; Jerry St. Dennis; Alan Heuberger Cc: Boris Nikolic (bgC3); Larry Cohen Subject: Inflation and investing and the foundation. It is obviously important to keep an eye on issues related to inflation both in terms of investing and in the work of the foundation. Assembling current data in one place is helpful in understanding the phenomenon, Food inflation including a nice chart: hup://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/02/14/chart-of-the-week-fighting- inflation/ IMF httplionline wi.corn/article/SB10001424052748703361904576142901753380400.html? mod=googlenews ws* "We are concerned that inflation is spilling over" into underlying demand, Mr. Singh said in an interview. Monetary policy alone won't be enough to contain these pressures and exchange-rate reform is essential. "There's certainly much more room for much of Asia to have more-flexible exchange rates and to have more strengthening," Mr. Singh said. "We do see flexibility and appreciation of many currencies in Asia as part of the process of normalizing the policy stance." Some governments are reluctant to allow their exchange rate to float freely, or appreciate in value as they seek to protect their exporters, and some authorities routinely intervene to weaken their currency. Mr. Singh, who has been the IMF's Asia chief since 2008, said policy makers can't have effective monetary policy with controlled exchange rates. Mr. Singh didn't single out a specific country, but a number of economists pin part of the blame for regional imbalances on China, which allows the yuan to move