Closer to home we find that in 1960 total government outlays were 22.1 per cent of GDP and unemployment was under 2 per cent. So even though total government spending is now 73 per higher than in 1960, unemployment is now 350 per cent higher. From this he deduced the silly conclusion that lower inflation raises unemployment. He compounded this idiocy with the claim that Australia's rising unemployment must mean inflation will fall further, as the former is a function of the latter. Coleman is clearly guilty of making the fundamental statistical mistake that every introduction to statistics warns against, and that is confusing correlation with causality.
Correlation only shows the degree of association, if any, between variables.
Statisticians stress that association does not prove causation. For example, though a correlation may exists between two variables both variables may be determined by a third variable. Austrian' economists pointed out that the 'theory' is false even though it is supported by statistical data. What the 'Austrians' pointed out, and the likes of Coleman cannot grasp, is that inflation works its job-creating 'magic' by reducing the costs of hiring labour. Inflation raises the price of the labourer's product relative to the cost of hiring thus making it more profitable to hire more labour.