What is the difference between inflation & a gov't screwing up their

[FloridaPat]

currency so bad that it drops like a rock? And has anyone noticed inflation is the gov'ts friend? Makes debt payments cheaper and pushes people into higher tax brackets but keep deductions on the old rates.

[sendero]

1. Inflation has it's advantages..

... but not for people who are holding wealth in paper money. There is basically no question that the US is in the process of "monetizing the debt" (printing dollars out of thin air in mass quantities) - the only questions are:

1) how will this affect the average American
2) what will it do to the dollar and what effect will that have on the global economy
3) can inflation really be controlled - i.e. what happens if you are shooting for 10% but it spins out of control to 25%?

May we live in interesting times.

[pretzel4gore]

2. 30 plus years ago, when wages were good

and people were free (sorta) somehow inflation ran up until interest rates were nearly 20 percent by 1973.....it seemed weird that 'inflation' could be such a problem (i guess the vietnam war was partly to blame) when everything appeared so solid and....blah blah blah. since then alan greenspan has more or less said inflation rate is determined by wages/salaries, and winfall profits of the 'investor' class just doesn't affect anything or cause inflation - when the wealthy have all the money, inflation remains low, cuz that way the wealthy's savings and investments don't lose value(when the people have control of much of the wealth, this law doesn't apply, and inflation takes off, thus reducing the value of the people's' savings)
it's all politics, with thieves running the shop, imo