In the wake of the American Civil War, one’s status as a veteran could bring significant social and economic benefits. Indeed, the Grand Army of the Republic would become an extremely influential interest group and helped fuel the early creation of an American welfare state for veterans. “Do it for the veterans” became a common plea delivered to politicians of the time.

There is never good reason to give up hope, and I’m convinced that the forces of freedom will prevail. Yet these are dark times for liberty. The rise of socialism is bad enough, but there are other dangers as well.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday morning that prices rose 6.2 percent on a year-over-year basis in October. That’s the highest YOY rate since December 1990, when the Consumer Price Index was also up 6.2 percent.

October’s rate was up from 5.3 percent in September and remains part of a surge in the index since February 2021, when year-over-year growth was still muted at 1.6 percent.

Who should take the blame (or credit) for Cuba’s 6,900% inflation rate?

Before the answer is given, consider the history of fiat currencies, from Roman times to Kublai Khan, pre-war Germany, to recent popular hyperinflations such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe. The common denominator is always the same. In the case of hyperinflation, it is always the result of government intervention. Despite the history of currency debasement and collapse brought on through increases to the money supply, countries across the world still struggle with learning from the past.

Following the Treaty of Utrecht, which concluded the War of the Spanish Succession, both England and France found themselves hopelessly mired in public debt. Both, it turned out, hit upon a similar solution for trying to magic it away, and in the process sparked two of the more famous speculative crashes in world economic history.

The vast majority of Mises Wire readers are already familiar with the Austrian business cycle theory. For those who are not, it is an Austrian perspective on what causes the sudden general cluster of business errors that results in a boom-bust cycle, with the busts being the recessions or depressions that we as a society so dread. Murray Rothbard explains this process in his America’s Great Depression:

What is the worst thing a government can do when there is high inflation and supply shortages? Multiply spending on energy and material-intensive areas. This is exactly what the US infrastructure plan is doing and—even worse—what other developed nations have decided to copy.

If you thought there were problems of supply and difficulties to access goods and services in the middle of a strong recovery, imagine what will happen once central banks and governments turn the printing machine to maximum level to spend on white elephants.