It was bound to happen. Even more radical ideas to produce inflation in a deflationary world have surfaced.

The latest absurd ideas come from Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist at the IMF, and Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Their ideas?

Wage and price controls in reverse, effectively demanding wages and prices rise.

Once-discredited wage and price controls get a fresh look as Japan struggles to stir inflation. This time, the controls would be in reverse.

The Wall Street Journal reports Radical Policy Ideas Resurface Amid Too-Low Inflation.

Four decades ago, governments desperate to tame double-digit inflation turned to the heavy-handed tool of wage and price controls. That once-discredited idea is getting another look, but this time to boost wages and prices, not restrain them.

“Some kind of mechanism, a ‘visible hand,’ is necessary for wages to rise,” Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda said in 2014. His plan that a 2% inflation target would serve that role in the place of coordinated wage bargaining hasn’t yet panned out.

In a recent article, Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist at the IMF, and Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, put forward several proposals for Mr. Abe’s government. First, delay a promised cut in corporate tax rates until companies raise wages. Second, increase public-sector pay, which would force private employers to do the same to hold on to workers. Third, raise the minimum wage and wages in government contracts and regulated sectors by at least 5%. And finally, index wages to inflation in those sectors over which the government has jurisdiction.

The IMF economists echo those suggestions and add a few more of their own, such as introducing tax penalties for companies for “not passing on excessive profit growth” or a “comply or explain” mechanism for companies to ensure “they raise wages by at least 2% plus productivity growth.”