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The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

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Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#161

Post by clankyclanker »

cle wrote: post #102
diob wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, I've posted this before, but long term wealth building is becoming too expensive for the average person. The only reason food hasn't become too expensive is wealthy people don't have a reason to go out and buy up all the food. They do, on the other hand, have reason to go out and invest. This is, however, starting to fall apart for goods that don't normally have reason to be bought up. In other words, folks wi…

If they can hoard goods and sell them all at higher prices, then does that imply that the goods are priced too low to begin with? What's keeping the sellers from recognizing this and raising the prices themselves?

It happens in minor monopolies, which are exploitable best at small scale, like location or temporality. I can flip the latest Nintendo mini on eBay pretty easily.

However, I can’t imagine the trouble that Nintendo would get into if they sold the same device at different prices based on zip code.

Not to say that doesn’t happen, because that’s half the point behind custom phone contracts, where the price you pay for the device over time varies widely from person to person. Though, because it’s individualized, it’s very hard for consumers to compare one another’s prices and identify minor monopolies or price discrimination when it does occur.

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#162

Post by RobertoG »

alexjray wrote: post #23

The fed has pumped 2.3 trillion dollars into the economy in the past six weeks.... I don't see how the dollar won't crash eventually. Why would foreign countries still buy US bonds?

Japan is the perfect example that a country with a sovereign currency doesn't need that nobody buy their bonds. They have been doing this for years and they don't have hyperinflation but the opposite.

But logic alone should tell us that already. When foreign countries buy US bonds can only buy them with dollars. You can't buy US bonds with another currency. Where are those dollars coming from?

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#163

Post by uzakov »

rllearneratwork wrote: post #72
anoraca wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any thoughtful reasoning behind that? Or just fatalistic absolutist predictions of doom?

middle class, long-term, needs to buy housing, educate their kids, and save for retirement. The price of all of the three above is rising very fast. Yes, there are other (different) factors for all 3, but too much monetary supply is one of them.

How easy is it in the USA to get an academic scholarship?

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#164

Post by [deleted] »

nostrademons wrote: post #124
smallnamespace wrote: post #49

The Fed is only creating bank reserves, which does not create more money. Therefore, the Fed has not been printing money. When the Fed buys assets (government bonds, Fannies, etc.) from a bank, the bank gets back 'bank reserves', which are just a number in the bank's Federal Reserve account somewhere. Those reserves can't be lent out. The bank can make no change to its lending, because it's a one-to-one swap (highly…

Bank reserve ratios [1] operate as a percentage, so by creating more bank reserves, you create more money that can be lent out. Say that the reserve ratios requirement is 10%, which it currently is. Then for every dollar it has in reserves, the bank may create $10 in loans. The bank reserves don't themselves circulate as money, but they let the bank create more credit, which does circulate as money. [1] https://www.i…

[deleted]

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#165

Post by nitrogen »

cle wrote: post #102
diob wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, I've posted this before, but long term wealth building is becoming too expensive for the average person. The only reason food hasn't become too expensive is wealthy people don't have a reason to go out and buy up all the food. They do, on the other hand, have reason to go out and invest. This is, however, starting to fall apart for goods that don't normally have reason to be bought up. In other words, folks wi…

If they can hoard goods and sell them all at higher prices, then does that imply that the goods are priced too low to begin with? What's keeping the sellers from recognizing this and raising the prices themselves?

It's zero sum. The people who desperately needed hand sanitizer or toilet paper today had less money left to spend elsewhere, but overall averaged demand wasn't all that different. Traditional suppliers probably know that jacking the price of one item can lead to losses elsewhere.

Hoarders/scalpers are not aiding price discovery, they are manipulating the price by artificially changing supply or demand. They don't have to do so sustainably either.

And all of that is leaving aside that the goal of a society is to maintain the society over time and in aggregate, not to maximize value extracted from every individual transaction.

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#166

Post by jakub_g »

diob wrote: post #60
scsilver wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who continue to jumble up inflation by its consumer defenition with the huge expanding of the amount of us dollars are only shooting their own wealth and anyone who listens to them's wealth in the foot. All you have to look at is stocks and home real estate to see that assets are ballooning no matter how cheap a dozen of eggs stays.

Right, I've posted this before, but long term wealth building is becoming too expensive for the average person. The only reason food hasn't become too expensive is wealthy people don't have a reason to go out and buy up all the food. They do, on the other hand, have reason to go out and invest. This is, however, starting to fall apart for goods that don't normally have reason to be bought up. In other words, folks wi…

Can you expand the example with consumer electronics - because it's not clear: who's gouging whom? You mean Big Tech selling expensive smartphones to people who can't buy a house so will buy an iPhone instead?

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#168

Post by RobertoG »

dnautics wrote: post #154
RobertoG wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't define inflation as you want. Inflation is an government official indicator with a very clear meaning.

do you always trust the government's definitions of things? Suppose the government defined "eastern time zone" to be a geographical area. And you live in western indiana, and commute to work in chicago. Suppose the government defined "torture" to not include "waterboarding".

That's not my point. My point is that if we don't agree in a definition of inflation, how can we have a rational discussion? And there is a clear textbook definition of inflation.

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#169

Post by pedro_hab »

pjc50 wrote: post #121
pedro_hab wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the new definition, in old dictionaries inflation was defined as increase in money supply. Using products to measure inflation, is a terrible mistake in my estimation, because cost has been falling, so stable prices don't mean no inflation. It just means the governments got wise to just take what they can get without being noticed.

.. how old a dictionary are we talking here? It's not a recent change.

Probably 100 years old, I don't remember exactly, but it is not recent at all.

Re: The ballooning money supply may be the key to unlocking inflation in the U.S.

#170

Post by nitrogen »

blackflame7000 wrote: post #143
triceratops wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To buy a house, just start one of the largest companies in history. Easy-peasy.

You can literally buy a house by making a YouTube video now a days. It kinda is easy-peasy. Go look at all those TikTok stars. Your ancestors lived in caves be thankful you can even live in a house. It would be much harder to do that without Banks like the FED. The problem is that you think you need to solve a grand problem instead of inventing something simple like a post-it note or a makeup tutorial. You seem to so…

The people who are working in the post-it note and makeup factories want houses too, you know.
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