The long-run determinants of the real interest rate and inflation
In the short run, real interest rates depend primarily on monetary policy. But in the long run, real interest rates are determined by the savings-investment equilibrium (the equilibrium between supply and demand for goods and services), and therefore on savings behaviour, the capital requirement and technological progress. The question is what determines inflation in the long run if the real interest rate is determined by the savings-investment equilibrium: If money is mainly transaction money, inflation will move with the money supply growth rate in the long run; But if money is mainly investment money, the situation will be very different: an increase in the money supply must be balanced by an increase in the value of bondholdings (to maintain the optimal structure of wealth), leading to a fall in the nominal long-term interest rate and, since the real interest rate results from the savings-investment equilibrium, a fall in inflation (which is consistent with the logic of “neo-Fisherism”) .