@Alon asset market prices can rise due socially valuable growth in production, or socially predatory expansion of profits at the expense of customers, workers, or vendors. can’t usefully talk about normatively about asset market prices without distinguishing these things. inflation is a bitch, politically. austerian policy is not usually desirable—better to run an economy hot, from a welfare perspective—but if you’re not in some way managing inflation or perceptions thereof, politics get hard.