The coordinated and constant creation of liquidity by the world's central banks, especially since the Greenspan era, has led to not only more contenders for the tallest building title all over the world, but also frenzied high-rise construction everywhere.
The crucial point to remember is that there is nothing magical about government officials.
The customary terminology misrepresents these things entirely. The philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of the social nexus.
So long as prices are flexible, any amount of money can "do the job.
The systematic problem arises from the fact that monetary policy sends incorrect signals into capital markets, reducing lenders' ability to distinguish between good and bad loans; it also sends incorrect signals to potential borrowers about what they can and cannot afford.
A general rise in prices can only occur if there is either a drop in the supply of all commodities or an increase in the supply of money.
The most important signal flashing recession is, of course, the subprime mortgage fiasco.
Changes in the originary rate of interest and in the amount of saving are — other things being equal — two aspects of the same phenomenon.
Although Frum naturally doesn't say it explicitly, the only "cushion" that unbacked fiat money can provide is that it allows politicians to literally paper over crises, limping along from one to the next.
