You should read my other post to get the full context. Surely you don't believe the Fed could buy $100 quadrillion worth of low interest government bonds tomorr

You should read my other post to get the full context. Surely you don't believe the Fed could buy $100 quadrillion worth of low interest government bonds tomorrow without consequence (although that distortion would peg the interest rate to whatever low rate they bought at). While Krugman is technically right that the CPI does not increase, it is for the wrong reasons, and he does not seem to be aware or care that other assets inflate as a direct consequence. Take a look at the increase in GDP adjusted equities and population adjusted real estate indices over the last two decades [0][1]. The point is that we have been experiencing inflated asset prices from these operations, another form of inflation. Because these benefit a relatively small proportion of the US population, it doesn't spill into staples as much as if it were helicopter dropped. Whereas when the Fed prints money for a stimulus check, it is more directly inflationary. We will see that with the $2000 stimulus checks, although that will be a drop in the bucket compared to Social Security once it becomes insolvent, assuming the Fed starts printing money to fund it. > Want to reduce wealth inequality? Increase taxation/redistribution. It seems we are in agreement if you read the last part of the sentence you quoted. Long term capital gains on 20 billion dollars of realized income is less than the effective rate paid by a doctor or engineer who made $400k. However, just because tax brackets are a problem, doesn't mean Fed market interventions aren't also creating problems. From your "inflation truthers" link, it seems to be shut down pretty effectively in the discussion you also linked. If you want to understand why in a more quantitative way than Carlson's ramblings against a straw man, see this graph: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=532320&rn=290#0 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=532320&rn=290#0. This is the approximate percentage of household paper wealth tied up in equities. Monetary policy has changed substantially since record keeping began, but we can see that higher highs and higher lows are being sustained over time as the Fed becomes more trigger happy with open market operations and low interest rates. [0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=kYEb https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=kYEb [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=oCZ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=oCZ