Should it work, and it's unlikely that it will, price inflation could simply run away. The litany of dysfunctional economic imbalances grows unabated. The people's incomes have ceased to grow. Consumer spending vastly exceeds incomes. Higher energy costs, across the board, cut into paychecks that no longer reach.
Homeowners squeeze the last drop of equity from their homes through growing numbers of refinancings.
To some extent, consumers are spending their savings to keep up. Should the savings rate rise to the low average levels of the 1980's, a depression is in the bag. Layoffs have picked up, plant closings and bankruptcies are in the news. A mountain of consumer debt serves as a backdrop to obliterated stock values and a reversal of the wealth effect psychology. Meanwhile, Wall Street knows no shame.