Barr offers plan to fight inflation

WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr says inflation can only be defeated by less governmental involvement in the economy.

Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia, noted Thursday that the United States recently saw its largest monthly increase in the consumer price over the last 26 years, and argued that it was governmental action that was mostly to blame.

"Unfortunately, the government bears much of the blame, since the Federal Reserve's continued cuts in interest rates and increases in the money supply have naturally inflated the general price level," Barr said in a release. "In its desperate attempt to bail out the housing industry and spur business investment, the Federal Reserve appears to have infected the entire economy with the inflation virus."

Barr agreed with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's recent Congressional statement on the need to achieve price stability.

"But the only way to do that is to end the government's attempt to micro-manage the economy, while protecting companies and industries from the consequences of their mistakes. If we don't change current polic -- really change it -- resurgent inflation will be just one of many economic charges that we will all have to pay," Barr said.