- 30 Sep 2009 03:35
#13181828
That is true.
However, doesn't your statement ("considering that it's possible to have a fiat currency and low inflation.....) indicate doubt? Doesn't the reality and regularity of fiat failure indicate that eventually it will fail (which means economic disaster for society)?
Again, I'm only concerned for my children, not for folks like yourself. People who insist on disastrous policy deserve it's fruit. I'm fine. I owe nothing, and my investments are about as safe as any (and likely safer than most).
Even if our current economic situation (overboard "stimulus" printing and spending) results in hyperinflation in many areas, I suspect this area will fare better than most, anyway. We already are.
Inflation:
Inflation can be caused by any of a number of economic situations. Figlio is desperately hanging onto the price revolution situation of colonial Spain, which I pointed out wasn't due to the collapse of a worthless fiat currency, but because the growth of wealth (due to the rapid influx of New World gold and silver) overran the supply of goods and services, not because the currency lost it's value and there were plenty of goods and services available if people were willing to trade them for the worthless paper (like in hyperinflationary Weimar Germany, where you spent your entire salary as soon as you could because it lost value by the minute, or like in hyperinflationary Hungary, where the value of the currency was declared by radio by the second).
If I must, I'll post more fact right here for those who wish to skirt it or just don't bother following the references I give:
And when the malevolent government seeks to destroy it, the populace should destroy the malevolent government.
But a population will not seek to destroy a government unless its policies' effects on the welfare of the population (ie inflation) become substantially burdensome. Considering that its possible to have a fiat currency and low inflation, overthrowing a government for simply having a fiat currency would be an idiotic, knee-jerk reaction.
That is true.
However, doesn't your statement ("considering that it's possible to have a fiat currency and low inflation.....) indicate doubt? Doesn't the reality and regularity of fiat failure indicate that eventually it will fail (which means economic disaster for society)?
Again, I'm only concerned for my children, not for folks like yourself. People who insist on disastrous policy deserve it's fruit. I'm fine. I owe nothing, and my investments are about as safe as any (and likely safer than most).
Even if our current economic situation (overboard "stimulus" printing and spending) results in hyperinflation in many areas, I suspect this area will fare better than most, anyway. We already are.
Quote:
This is not an inflation due to the instability of the currency like fiat currency creates, which is much more devastating, long lasting, and more difficult to extract a society from.
How so? You pretty much defined inflation in the paragraph above this one.
Inflation:
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.[1] When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit of account in the economy.
Inflation can be caused by any of a number of economic situations. Figlio is desperately hanging onto the price revolution situation of colonial Spain, which I pointed out wasn't due to the collapse of a worthless fiat currency, but because the growth of wealth (due to the rapid influx of New World gold and silver) overran the supply of goods and services, not because the currency lost it's value and there were plenty of goods and services available if people were willing to trade them for the worthless paper (like in hyperinflationary Weimar Germany, where you spent your entire salary as soon as you could because it lost value by the minute, or like in hyperinflationary Hungary, where the value of the currency was declared by radio by the second).
If I must, I'll post more fact right here for those who wish to skirt it or just don't bother following the references I give:
The main cause of hyperinflation is a massive and rapid increase in the amount of money, which is not supported by growth in the output of goods and services. This results in an imbalance between the supply and demand for the money (including currency and bank deposits), accompanied by a complete loss of confidence in the money, similar to a bank run. Enactment of legal tender laws and price controls to prevent discounting the value of paper money relative to gold, silver, hard currency, or commodities, fails to force acceptance of a paper money which lacks intrinsic value. If the entity responsible for printing a currency promotes excessive money printing, with other factors contributing a reinforcing effect, hyperinflation usually continues. Often the body responsible for printing the currency cannot physically print paper currency faster than the rate at which it is devaluing, thus neutralizing their attempts to stimulate the economy.
Hyperinflation is generally associated with paper money because this can easily be used to increase the money supply: add more zeros to the plates and print, or even stamp old notes with new numbers. Historically there have been numerous episodes of hyperinflation in various countries, followed by a return to "hard money". Older economies would revert to hard currency and barter when the circulating medium became excessively devalued, generally following a "run" on the store of value.
Hyperinflation effectively wipes out the purchasing power of private and public savings, distorts the economy in favor of extreme consumption and hoarding of real assets, causes the monetary base, whether specie or hard currency, to flee the country, and makes the afflicted area anathema to investment..............
..............Thus when fiat money is printed, government obligations that are not denominated in money increase in cost by more than the value of the money created.
From this, it might be wondered why any rational government would engage in actions that cause or continue hyperinflation. One reason for such actions is that often the alternative to hyperinflation is either depression or military defeat. The root cause is a matter of more dispute. In both classical economics and monetarism, it is always the result of the monetary authority irresponsibly borrowing money to pay all its expenses. These models focus on the unrestrained seigniorage of the monetary authority, and the gains from the inflation tax. In Neoliberalism, hyperinflation is considered to be the result of a crisis of confidence. The monetary base of the country flees, producing widespread fear that individuals will not be able to convert local currency to some more transportable form, such as gold or an internationally recognized hard currency. This is a quantity theory of hyperinflation........