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> So now we should be penalizing unproductive assets? When did we all decide that was ok? We already do that---it's called inflation. And the justification use

• twblalock 6y ago
  Inflation was not intentionally invented as a tax. It is a characteristic of a monetary economy. Economists prefer it to deflation because it deflation is worse, but that doesn't mean that we invented inflation on purpose as some kind of social engineering tool.
  • lazulicurio 6y ago
    > that doesn't mean that we invented inflation on purpose as some kind of social engineering tool. We didn't invent inflation, but we absolutely do set a target inflation rate as a social engineering tool. And the reason that deflation is considered "worse" is because it lets people keep equity in unproductive assets instead of liquidating it and moving the money into more productive assets.
    • twblalock 6y ago
      > And the reason that deflation is considered "worse" is because it lets people keep equity in unproductive assets instead of liquidating it and moving the money into more productive assets. No, the reason deflation is considered worse is the possibility of a deflationary spiral. The Fed is primarily interested in preventing a collapse of the banking system. They don't really care if people are spending their money on productive investments or hoarding it -- in fact, if everyone was spending their money on productive investments there wouldn't be any bank reserves, and the Fed would be very unhappy about that.