Inflation can be desirable and there is not much robust evidence that we have even low level inflation yet. Without strong inflation it will be extremely difficult to deal with the consequences of superheated global commodity markets. Those boomer McMansions are not worth a million plus each, period, so we have to turn the dial down one way or another. Debasing the currency is a terrible way of going about that, but appears to be what we as a society have decided upon.