Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

yarn.pranshum.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 550 posts

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#291

Post by bubblematrix »

jrm4 wrote: post #42

I'm no crypto fanboy by any means, but it's hard to not think that, if crypto doesn't completely die out this bear market, it's likely to be at least a somewhat significant factor in all of this. Not saying it will save us all, but it seems like alternate stores-of-value are likely to be, well, valuable.

In 2008/2009 when Bitcoin became a thing, we (IRC dorks) were mining it because of the recession. When 1 Bitcoin = $1 USD, that was a big deal - and when it broke past $5 USD that was an even bigger deal.

Bitcoin was made because of the recession and how poorly interconnected global economies were performing. It was supposed to be currency separated from politics/regional crisis.

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#292

Post by badlucklottery »

ALittleLight wrote: post #257
unity1001 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In California, people fitting certain economic criteria are now being issued $1000 checks for inflation relief. This is beyond ludicrous. Its not. Its happening in Europe too. Its a way to try to get people through the winter and avoid the energy crisis impacting ordinary people. That's what a government should do - take care of its people during extraordinary times.

That doesn't make sense though. You can't create energy by printing money. You just redistribute the value of your money. Maybe that's good - not clear to me why it's better to use inflation, which risks destabilizing the currency and punishes people who saved money, rather than straightforward taxes.

> You can't create energy by printing money.

Yes but the energy crisis isn't evenly distributed across the world. NA, for example, is still doing relatively well. While Europe is being hit relatively hard by the shortage and will likely have to import from more expensive sources than previous years to make it through the winter.

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#293

Post by missedthecue »

ForHackernews wrote: post #19
nsxwolf wrote: post #12

Print lotsa money, get lotsa inflation.

Yes, but why now? They have been printing money for a long time. This is a question I have never seen these inflation hawks answer: If printing money triggers inflation, why is there a 14 year lag on that effect?

I think a lot of people just assumed that QE 2009-2022 was adding to the money supply, but any impact it had just pales in comparison to covid relief funds, which were $6 trillion in less than two years. Look at this graph of the money supply.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#295

Post by jelliclesfarm »

buscoquadnary wrote: post #243
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes. even though technically california doesnt 'print money'. people are more important than economy. the 'redistribution' is happening to help the most vulnerable and that's exactly what surpluses should be used for..seems like a good use of money to me.

I hate it when people make it seem like the economy and the people are two different things. The economy is the aggregate capability of a society to provide goods and services to people, if the economy collapses the goods and services that are being provided cease to be as well and people are worse off. Short sighted statements like "people are more important than the economy" is a feel good virtue signaling that is…

I wasn’t virtue signalling. Over supply of money will make inflation worse, but constriction would bring down spending.

A labourer making daily wages and supplemented by govt dollars will spend all of it. A millionaire with a few millions in the bank is not going to spend any of it. Especially during an overheated inflationary period. It’s better spent to the most vulnerable to pay for their food, gas and utilities.

This is exactly what needs to be done to keep spending going. It’s spending from a healthy and happy middle class that keeps the economy going. Can’t freeze them out. Not implementing measures like this would collapse the economy.

An economy with hopeless disenfranchised hungry poor majority is exactly the first ingredient in the recipe for revolts and revolutions.

Also..it’s heartless to not share a surplus to people who are suffering. We are a rich country. No one died because someone else got a little extra money to pay their electricity bill or gas.

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#297

Post by bob_theslob646 »

goldfish3 wrote: post #283
bob_theslob646 wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are a few things about i-bonds that the average joe may not know. Series I bonds with issue dates prior to February 2003 became eligible for redemption six months from the issue date. Bonds with issue dates of February 2003 and later are eligible for redemption one year from the issue date. However, if a bond is cashed within the first five years after its issue date, interest earned during the three months prio…

>But the thing most miss about the I bonds is you receive no interest until maturity/cashing it in. So no compound interest. That's incorrect. I bonds compound semi-annually. https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/i-bonds/i-bonds...

Technically you are correct, but it is only when you cash them in.

Please see this for other questions.

>3). Tax Deferred - I-bonds do not throw off interest. You only owe tax on the internally compounding interest once the bonds are cashed in, which means you control when you pay tax. Always a good thing!

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/qprqpy/ibo...

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#298

Post by tsimionescu »

WalterBright wrote: post #80
tsimionescu wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You keep claiming this, but it is fairly obvious that prices can be forced up by factors that have nothing to do with the money supply - most notably, constrained supply in basic raw materials (especially oil and its derivatives) can force virtually all prices up, regardless of the amount of currency available.

Since you know all the obvious answers, try these on: 1. Where does all the money come from to pay for increased gas prices? 2. When gas prices go down (and they often do go down by multiples), why doesn't deflation happen?

1. There's no extra money - poorer people just consume less.

2. Because companies just take all of the difference as extra revenue, and prefer to increase salaries (if not just keep everything as profit) rather than reducing prices.

Note that I'm not claiming that increased money supply doesn't cause inflation. It obviously does. I'm claiming it's not the only cause of inflation. It's sufficient, but not necessary for inflation to happen.

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#299

Post by [deleted] »

beerdoggie wrote: post #54

In California, people fitting certain economic criteria are now being issued $1000 checks for inflation relief. This is beyond ludicrous. We have printed so much money, the only solution is to... print more? It's almost like it is all a sneaky backdoor to letting the government redistribute wealth without real oversight...

[deleted]

Re: Inflation is at a 40 year high. What can history teach us?

#300

Post by mise_en_place »

It's very much a tale of two dollars, however. The dollar price index plummeted after abolishing the gold standard. Now it has risen substantially, as it did in 2008, to become the safe haven currency that all other countries are hoarding, due to inflation in their own countries. At some point this house of cards will collapse, specifically if the Fed capitulates in its fight against inflation and stops raising interest rates.
Post reply on HN