I am reading a book on business cycle models, and it keep using the word "steady state". It never defined what that actually means.
Obviously it is the idea that some key variables reach constant levels ... but WHAT key variables? It doesn't explain that.
For example, at one point it says "zero inflation steady state". Uhm, sorry, but what? Zero inflation steady state? Of course inflation is zero in steady state ... otherwise price levels would not be constant, hence not in steady state. In fact, if inflation was ever non-zero, we can NOT be in steady state since then price levels must be changing by definition.
So what am I supposed to make of this? What is steady state??