Liberals, including me, got inflation wrong

Two years ago, Congress passed two bills totaling around $3 trillion in Covid relief spending – the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed in March 2020, and the $900 billion pandemic relief bill passed in December 2020. Both were signed by Trump and supported by Republicans. The economic stimulus packages, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed by Biden in March 2021, which contained at least one tax credit program which is already in effect, have contributed to inflationary pressures but are not the only reason behind the spike, experts say.

"experts say." Why the fuck didn't the so called experts you are quoting predict the fucking inflation? They are experts at nothing. I am by no means an expert on economics but I do know how to balance a budget and not go into debt. This is what is going to happen in the coming years if not months. The US govt is going to continue printing trillions upon trillions of worthless dollars that the federal reserve will enable them to do. The US dollar will cease to be the reserve currency because it become completely worthless. The US govt will no longer be able to print worthless money because no one will accept it. All the people who rely on govt for their paychecks will wake up one day and stop receiving them. All those entitlement programs and welfare programs will end. Then there will be a massive world wide depression the likes of which will make 1929 look like a economic boom. The United States is piss fucking bankrupt. The only thing keeping it afloat is the US dollar being the reserve currency and allowing the federal reserve to print worthless money. that will end.  You heard it predicted here by a non expert. Now tell me how its all Trumps fault. It's the entire govt. The govt, the federal reserve and every single congressman that ever voted for deficit spending for the past 30 years is to blame. This is what caused inflation, wake the fuck up and buy a clue.

Money is not an end in itself it is the means to an end

Inflation is not a bug of capitalism it is a feature.

As a feature of capitalism inflation can be used by the ultra rich in the same way they use money and towards the same end. To concentrate wealth in as few hands as possible. 

Money is not wealth. Food and shelter and tools and reproductive opportunities are wealth. You cannot eat money. You cannot use it to keep warm in winter. You cannot use it to build a wooden deck. You cannot f@ck it and create more humans. 

Money is only an exchange rate on all of these factors.

Honestly any "liberal" who supports capitalism is actually supporting meritocracy and exploitation. You cannot have capitalism without those.

I agree, of course. Money is just an exchange rate on stuff that’s actually valuable. However, over short timeframes, people imagine money has value, and that leads to the weird outcome that the quantity of money in the economy affects real stuff. 

Inflation is pretty bad for capital, actually. In part, it’s bad for creditors, because sufficiently high inflation means that nominal interest rates are insufficient to compensate creditors for losses. And in credible monetary policy regimes, it leads to tightening -- stock markets aren’t doing very well right now. 

I’m also uncompelled by the idea that inflation is occurring due entirely to corporate greed. For one, if my (empirically justifiable) claims about excess demand in the economy are correct, the alternative to the prices of goods and services increasing would be shortages of stuff. Either way, people would suffer. Besides, capitalism is a constant, but inflation has increased -- inflation was very low (dangerously low, arguably) in the post-2008 period, despite the economy still being a capitalistic one. Here’s a more rigorously argued set of empirical arguments for why things like monopoly power are probably not the main driver of current high inflation.

I don’t think meritocracy is a bad thing. I support it, on balance. 

I agree that capitalism leads to exploitative situations, often. I nonetheless think capitalism -- broadly defined -- does more good than harm, and is preferable to any feasible alternatives. 

Capitalism is a false meritocracy. It measures everyone's merit by their wealth only. No other factors are taken into account. This means the hardest working people are often also the poorest. 

The problem with any meritocracy is that merit is subjective. One answer to this glaring issue would be to simply consider all people as meritous of basic necessities, education and human dignity. 

Inflation is a tool of the state used to correct any time the market begins to favor the workforce. When people are paid high wages and cannot afford to improve their living standards you know that inflation is working.

The economic hellscape of a depression into which we are about to enter is Ron Paul circa 2008's vindication, once again.  

Relatedly, the fed is the biggest ponzi scheme on earth.  

Today in stupid things I read . . . . 

Also known as QE-infinity.  

At some point before the worst inflation we've seen in more than 40 years.  

Discrediting your opponent with ad hominems is no substitute for an actual argument. 

An actual false meritocracy would be every government worker.

I think everyone should start their own business. There would be a lot more millionaires and billionaires me thinks.

That’s true meritocracy.

You keep switching between different claims about inflation, but you haven’t provided any evidence for them!

I am unaware of having changed my stance. Inflation is a tool just like any economic tool.

IF everything costs exactly what we will pay for it (i.e. what we believe it is worth) THEN inflation is the mass delusion that everything in the world is more valuable today than it was yesterday. 

Here’s a more realistic way of looking at it:

It means that you can buy something for a lower price today than you can tomorrow.

What makes it more realistic? You have only changed the perspective of the statement not its content. 

Ok… here’s another, better way to put it that hopefully answers your question:

Goods have generally the same value; it’s just that your money is losing value…

Your money never had any intrinsic value to begin with. It is nonsense to say that this non value has changed. The value of money is a shared fiction of convenience. Only that shared fiction can change money's actual (non) value.

False. The proof is you will not part with all, or even half of your alleged valueless money for no value in return.

The value of money is defined by what you can exchange it for. When you need more money this year than last year to exchange it for the same goods, that money is indeed losing its value.

You don’t think some things don’t have intrinsic value?

To be honest.  Most people don't have an extremely deep knowledge of the banking system or monetary policy.  For every one person who has worked in the industry for decades and has learned a lot about it, there are 1000 people on the internet who get their opinions from pundits or cherrypick sources that confirm their biases.

Maybe the Federal Reserve overprinted.  But what if they underprinted and a huge depression happened in 2020?  I won't even pretend that I understand the nuance or the extent of the tradeoffs involved.

liberals get everything wrong

Last time we had a recession a republican was in the White House. Bush W. 

This time we avoided a depression by getting Trump another republican out of the White House.