What does a constant inflation rate have to do with exponential growth?
105457
Say inflation is constant at 5% per year and you have something worth x.  \n\nOne year later, it is worth x*1.05\nThe next year, it is worth x*1.05*1.05\nThe third year, it is worth x*1.05*1.05*1.05\n\nIn general, for year n, it is worth x * 1.05^n\n\nSo, it is growing exponentially.
1179164
The whole point is that the economy is moving *too* fast right now.  Same thing in the 20s before everything overheated and collapsed.  The point of raising interest rates is to slow down the economy so that it grows closer to 3% instead of the 5.6% that just got reported today.  They're not trying to raise rates so much that deflation happens.
405106
Inflation/Deflation, Supply/demand and umm the crazy graphs and curves of demand, supply etc
757820
The general exponential population growth is:\n\nA(t) = P(1+r)^t\n\nwhere\n\nP is the inital population\nr is the growth rate\nt is the time
493182
P(n+1) - P(n) is the change in population over one period. \n\nrP is the rate of growth of population, tempered by (1-P(n)/E). \n\nBasically, imagine P(n) is very small compared to the equilibrium population. P(n)/E would be small, and 1-P(n)/E would be close to one. Thus, the growth of population rP(n)*(1-P(n)/P) would be close to rP. \n\nHowever, the model takes into account other factors, e.g. environment, that limits population growth. As P(n) grows, P(n)/E gets closer to 1. If P(n) is almost exactly E, (1-P(n)/E) approaches 0. Thus rP(1-P(n)/E) approaches 0, and the population growth P(n+1) - P(n) approaches 0. \n\nAs a result, the population starts growing very fast, and then slows down as it approaches equilibium value. This relationship would also hold if the population started out too high, and decreased towards equilibrium.
17052
These two links are quite comprehensive in their coverage of these terms. \n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation_%28economics%29
356955
1.  The von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) introduced by von Bertalanffy in 1938 predicts the length of a shark as a function of its age, L = L(t): L(t) = Loo - (Loo - Lo) exp(-kt) \n2.  Examples of exponential growth\nBiology. \nMicroorganisms in a culture dish will grow exponentially, at first, after the first microorganism appears (but then logistically until the available food is exhausted, when growth stops). \nA virus (SARS, West Nile, smallpox) of sufficient infectivity (k > 0) will spread exponentially at first, if no artificial immunization is available. Each infected person can infect multiple new people. \nHuman population, if the number of births and deaths per person per year were to remain constant (but also see logistic growth). \nMany responses of living beings to stimuli, including human perception, are logarithmic responses, which are the inverse of exponential responses; the loudness and frequency of sound are perceived logarithmically, even with very faint stimulus, within the limits of perception. This is the reason that exponentially increasing the brightness of visual stimuli is perceived by humans as a smooth (linear) increase, rather than an exponential increase. This has survival value. Generally it is important for the organisms to respond to stimuli in a wide range of levels, from very low levels, to very high levels, while the accuracy of the estimation of differences at high levels of stimulus is much less important for survival. \nElectroengineering \nCharging and discharging of capacitors and changes in current in inductors are also exponential growth and decay phenomena. Engineers use a rule of five time constants to estimate when a steady state has been reached. \nComputer technology \nProcessing power of computers. See also Moore's law and technological singularity (under exponential growth, there are no such singularities). \nInternet traffic growth. \nWikipedia:Modelling Wikipedia's growth - an analysis of Wikipedia's growth rates based on article growth rates and other statistics \nInvestment. The effect of compound interest over many years has a substantial effect on savings and a person's ability to retire. See also rule of 72 \nPhysics \nAtmospheric pressure decreases exponentially with increasing height above sea level, at a rate of about 12% per 1000m. \nNuclear chain reaction (the concept behind nuclear weapons). Each uranium nucleus that undergoes fission produces multiple neutrons, each of which can be absorbed by adjacent uranium atoms, causing them to fission in turn. If the probability of neutron absorption exceeds the probability of neutron escape (a function of the shape and mass of the uranium), k > 0 and so the production rate of neutrons and induced uranium fissions increases exponentially, in an uncontrolled reaction. \nNewton's law of cooling  where T is temperature, t is time, and, A, D, and k > 0 are constants, is an example of exponential decay. \nMulti-level marketing \nExponential increases appear in each level of a starting member's downline as each subsequent member recruits more people.
199954
An inflationary gap means that demand has outstripped supply. This typically leads to inflation of prices because there is less supply to meet the demand, if the demand curve for the product in question is inelastic, prices will rise because the supply curve will have shifted to intersetct the demand curve at a higher price point.\n\nOr more simply put, people will be willing to pay more for the product because it's not as easy to come by.
704788
According to Mark McCutcheon and his Final Theory (of everything), gravity is the result of everything in the universe expanding at a universal constant atomic expansion rate (XA) of 0.00000077 per second squared. \n\nFrom his book:\n\n"This numeric result for the universal atomic expansion rate, XA, means that we can now calculate the amount of overall expansion each second of any atom, object, or planet simply by multiplying their radii by XA. Multiplying the radius of the Earth by XA gives 4.9 meters, which is the distance an object "falls due to gravity" on Earth in its first second. So, in essence, we can now calculate the effective gravity of every atom, object, and planet simply by knowing their size. This is radically different from Newton's idea of gravity, which states that a gravitational force emanates from all objects in proportion to their mass."\n\nSo, as all atoms composing the Earth and all the atoms composing yourself are growing at a certain expansion rate, and since the Earth proportionally grows faster than you, in reality you are never falling towards the Earth, on the contrary the Earth is pushing you constantly as it grows. \n\nYou would not feel falling in a free fall (in a vacuum), the Earth would be growing towards you very fast at a speed of 4.9 meters per second. As you also grow in size yourself at the same expansion rate, the distance between you and the Earth shrinks at a speed of 9.8 meters per second squared.\n\nNo strange force emanating from objects, attracting each other. Simply shrinking distances between them due to everything expanding at a constant rate. That is gravity according to Mark McCutcheon.\n\nSee the link below. It is not very clear on that website what the new gravity theory is all about, but if you contact me I will give you all the details. This is the kind of thing that could change the future, and yet, could virtually pass unnoticed in the history of humanity. Check it out... Mark McCutcheon probably does not have all the answers, but I'm sure he is up to something important which could answer many of your questions you have asked so far.
1116586
If higher interest rates contribute to inflation then the Federal Reserve so have it wrong!!\n\nMost inflation is believed to come from an over active economy with too much money chasing too few goods. By  raising the cost of borrowing money, it reduces the amount of money people have to spend on more stuff. That slows down the economy. \n\nMost businesses don't rely on borrowed money to stay in business. They typically used borrowed money to expand their business or acquire other businesses.
1145664
market forces do play a part in the rates set by the fed.  the main concern of the fed is to balance inflation and growth of the economy.  If growth is too high and inflation rates spike, then higher rates cool things down.  It's a fine balancing act.
823137
It's a way to gauge interest rates, but a poor way to gauge personnel inflation.  If you love cheese and movies and have serious health care problems, your personnel inflation rate will probably be several times higher than the CPI.  I was watching one show where this guy's personnel inflation rate jumped 1,500% from the previous year just because of what he bought.
945362
An exponential function diverges from a base value by a factor of e (or converges to a base or asymptote value, reducing the difference by a factor of 1/e) for each time interval known as a "time constant". In the equation you provided, the time constant is T, the base value is 'a', b is a scale factor for the rate of increase, and the time variable is t. This equation represents an asymptotic or converging function since the power of e is negative. In each successive interval of T, the function's difference from 'a' decreases by a factor of 1/e. For an example of a real-world application of this equation, consider a capacitor of C farads being charged from 0 volts by a 5-volt source through a resistor of R ohms. The time constant of charging is R*C seconds. The equation for the voltage V on the capacitor is V = 5 - 5 * e^(-t/(R*C)). When T = 0, e^(-t/(R*C)) = 1 and V = 0; when T is large, e^(-t/(R*C)) approaches 0 and V approaches 5.
1135453
Inflation is caused by the increase in the cost of goods and services. Inflation that is caused artificially, like the price of crude oil, can only be stopped by taking away the oligopolistic profits the sellers make. Inflation caused by true scarcity cannot be cured.\n\nSo far, this (USA) country's only answer to inflation has been to increase the cost of borrowing money, which seems crazy, since that makes prices go up also. I guess you have to have a degree in economics to understand why stupidity works.
952522
Inflation is a dangerous beast.  It is necessary for growth.  The nature of growth is inflation.  Too much inflation or fluctuating inflation is dangerous.  People don’t know what to expect.  Inflation impacts many things.  Let’s look at the value of a home.  If I know that my house will grow 6% each year I am happy.  I will buy a house.  If one year it grows 50% the next year it falls by 18% then I will never know if I should buy or sell or do nothing.  \n\nConstant Inflation helps people feel confident about the future and allows them to invest with more certainty.
968183
I'm not really sure what you're asking.  The growth rate would depend on the formula itself, so without the formula, there's no way to determine the answer.  You'd need one to get the other.  I imagine that there could be an infinite number of growth rates and in infinite number of growth-rate-formulas.
832747
Yes, because the cosmological constant is a specification of a pressure that's constant in each unit volume of empty space.  So it "explains" an expansion over and above the expansion due to the velocity imparted by the Big Bang.  Einstein, after some thought, concluded that the CC = 0; in other words, that the expansion of the universe is due only to the initial kick of the Big Bang and is thus slowing down due to gravity.  But recent observations (of very distant supernovas) indicate that the expansion is not slowing down, but increasing.  This is consistent with a small but positive CC.  Other explanations are possible, though.  For example, there could be a "real" force exerting the outward pressure ("real" as opposed to the very mysterious constant pressure per unit volume); if this is true, such a force couldn't be one of the four known forces of physics, but would have to be a fifth one, and so has been called "quintessence."