With inflation it starts making sense to invest into human labor and knowledge instead of tangible physical things.
Progress accelerates and income distribution becomes less of a power law.
Inflation benefits you unless you're in the top 1 percent.
Because that's definitely what happens when people hold a lot of money. They invest into human labour and knowledge.
The point is that they don't. Money is supposed to be itchy. You're supposed to spend it.
When you spend money you are paying someone else's salary and that someone can spend money on things you provide and pay for your salary.
With deflation you basically get the minimum possible economy, which means lots of unemployed people. Their work isn't needed and by extension the person itself isn't needed either so we would be better off with the minimum number of people possible. That means heading straight to 0.
Not really - inflation generally means wages go down relative to wages and those who spend a higher portion of their income on 'stuff' are generally worse off.
Inflation is targeted at 2% to keep a tiny bit of wage deflation in the economy, and to stay safely away from deflation which is a little scarier.
They are not idiots, the only question is strategy.
Inflation is actually in check, which is odd because they are spending a lot.
The concern right now is not inflation or deflation, it's the amount they are spending and the huge amounts on their balance sheet. That's the worry.
I don't get this: If purchasing power decreases - how does that benefit us?
Now let say your parents died when you were young and all the inheritance was used for your phd in math. Who will pay you when the ROI on math discovery is so low? Every dollar you receive will make your employer poorer. You will have to become a teacher, but then, who will you teach? Other future teacher?
Us had deflationary events. From 1930 to 1933 an 2007-2008 more recently.
Now imagine that your dad is a wealthy business man in the 20th century. He keeps all his wealth in dollars and never does anything with the wealth. You inherit his dollars and will become more wealthy than your father will ever be just from deflation alone, without having to do anything to earn the additional wealth.
Here's the irony. Old people are entirely dependent on the work of young people. Once old people retire and decide to spend their money it will be worthless because there won't be enough young workers to provide for all their spending.
It's simply not possible to buy enough apples and water in your 20s to last until your 80s. The ability to save money over long periods of time would imply that such a thing is possible.
A dollar is basically the promise that someone, somewhere in the US will work for you and provide you with a service or good. The value of the dollar is entirely dependent on the existence of an economy that lets you exchange the dollar for a service or good.
In short, the dollar is backed by the economy of the US. If that economy disappears or shrinks then so does the value of your dollar. By having an inflationary currency you basically promise that future income will be greater than current income. Businesses love growing incomes and grow their business accordingly and employ workers along the way. Thus the existence of an economy that allows you to exchange dollars for goods and services is guaranteed.
It's quite easy to see how deflation is bad for business. You put money into resource inputs and transform them into goods. With deflation you want to buy as late as possible and sell as early as possible. The obvious problem with this is that you must produce before you sell. It's not possible to buy inputs after selling the product. Any company that keeps an inventory of goods is discouraged to do so because the value of the goods is constantly going down.
Wow. I've heard some really narrow and privileged perspectives in my time, but that one is really something.
>While economists are talking about how good it is, everybody else is complaining about prices of everything going up.
If prices are going up that's a price signal for a growing industry. It means it becomes easier for companies to expand and thus employ more people. Of course, in practice local governments have made it almost impossible for markets to provide for basic needs like housing. It's really shocking to me how many people see a housing boom and their first response is to stop building more housing. It's like shutting an oil well down because oil has become too profitable.
And I personally saw Bitcoin change people from a non-saver to saver. Also I know many poor people who save all the time without access to markets.
That's a pretty stupid argument. Why should everyone's life get worse from that point on, if it can get better for everyone involved?
That's not true. Interest rates are usually slightly above inflation. Back when inflation was high you could get decent interest rates on your bank account to compensate. Nowadays with super low inflation the Fed is getting desperate and consumer banks are handing out money to anyone. I got two unwanted credit offers from two banks this week. Three years ago none of them would want to even talk with me, back when I really needed the money.
>Now I am able to offer every expensive cancer treatment to my girlfriend (TIL therapy) if her cancer doesn’t respond to her treatment (she’s in stage 4 :( )
If Bitcoin merely stays ahead of inflation then you would expect a return of 3% per year. What you are seeing is more of a bubble fueled by the belief that the central bank will pump money into the markets forever. However, I'm glad that the bubble money is getting put to good use. Bitcoin is probably a more effective wealth equalizer than the Fed will ever be.
Your cash goes down in value, your debt reduces, but your house increases in value, the rent you can charge goes up.
Inflation helps those in debt with fixed interest payments which is great. It doesn’t effect those owning assets though.
Naw, my libertarian utopia is more important.
Further, btc is currently inflating faster than usd and will continue to inflate for a century.
While economists are talking about how good it is, everybody else is complaining about prices of everything going up.