Inflation

Hyperinflation? Yes, it can happen here, and the more officials deny hyperinflation is possible, the more they create the conditions that causes it.

The current bout of inflation is the latest disaster in a string of disasters caused by government debasement of once sound money.

The standard line is that the Federal Reserve System has two mandates, keep unemployment low and create price stability. Mark Thornton notes that the real agenda is found elsewhere.

The Fed claims 2 percent inflation promotes "price stability." However, that policy also causes the boom-and-bust cycle, which is anything but stable.

Progressives are fond of telling us that we are under a "social contract" with the government, in effect justifying whatever abuses authorities inflict. Putting up with massive inflation is the latest iteration of this so-called contract.

The US dollar is not the world's "reserve" currency because of responsibility on behalf of the monetary authorities. Instead, the dollar's "strength" wages from the USA's self-appointed role as the world's protector.

The Fed's entire "strategy" can be summed up as "hike 'til it breaks, cut 'til it inflates." That's the best all those PhDs at the Fed have managed to come up with. 

The Fed claims 2 percent inflation promotes "price stability." However, that policy also causes the boom-and-bust cycle, which is anything but stable.

While officials in the White House, Treasury, and the Fed give the appearance of being in control, but in truth, they cannot undo the damage they have done.

Why does money have value? Typical economists claim that money is valuable because the government declares it so. But that is impossible, given the true origins of money, which are best explained by Austrian economists.