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Whatever the mechanism, fiat currencies are subject to inflation through the pressure of an ever-increasing money supply. As they should be, given that populat
by achompas 15y ago
Whatever the mechanism, fiat currencies are subject to inflation through the pressure of an ever-increasing money supply.
As they should be, given that populations increase.
Anyway, even if Bitcoins go underground, they'd have to be priced such that they'd be cheaper than other money laundering channels. Due to their finite supply, though, money laundering through Bitcoins will get very expensive. So their utility re: taxes will be squashed by either the government or the black market.
- nkassis 15y agoI think this is a very important thing that people don't understand. Static money supply in a world where as you point it out population increases means deflation. And increasing popluation is only one example of the need for inflation. We create wealth all the time, people in other countries are buying their first car etc... the more goods are purchases and sold the more money you need. At least that's what I understand from my couple Economics classes.
- mobileman 15y agoBitcoins are divisible, so everyone's share gets smaller
- sigil 15y ago> As they should be, given that populations increase. Is the U.S. Population increasing like this? [1] That's what the U.S. monetary supply looks like. More correctly, fiat money supply should ideally match total economic output, not population. But the GDP graph also doesn't look anything like that monetary supply graph. Given this, the BitCoin phenomenon is understandable: savers are looking for a currency that's not subject to manipulation and is most of all predictable in terms of supply. Whether or not it succeeds, I'm glad there's the pressure of a competing, not-centrally-manipulated currency. [1] http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s%5B1%5D%5Bid%5D=AMBNS http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s%5B1%5D%5Bid%5D...
- acslater00 15y agoActually money supply should ideally match total demand for money. Real economic output is not super relevant.
- sigil 15y agoMilton Friedman disagrees and measures inflation relative to output in his book on monetary phenomena [1]. Since you're an economist (right?) I'd be interested in why you think he's got the wrong measure. [1] http://books.google.com/books?id=ZNAhXe2pz1cC&lpg=PA196&ots=s51lXrnrkZ&dq=milton%20friedman%20money%20mischief%20match&pg=PA193#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=ZNAhXe2pz1cC&lpg=PA196&...
- acslater00 15y agoI'm not disagreeing with Milton Friedman at all. Read the sentence "Prices might even fall gradually as higher incomes led people to want to hold a large fraction of their wealth in the form of money." Inflation is a Money Supply / Money Demand phenomenon. In the long term, Money Demand tracks real output, but in the short term (such as the recession we're currently in) you can see major swings in demand that counteract what would normally be a quite inflationary money printing exercise.
- sigil 15y agoSo you agree that in the long term, money supply should closely follow real output. It's only in the short term that the Fed is allowed to untether them for the purposes of intervention. Let's not forget that the Fed's monetary policy in the 2000's helped create this situation: economic intervention necessitates further economic interventions. It's no wonder people are heading for the exits via BitCoin.
- achompas 15y agoBut the GDP graph also doesn't look anything like that monetary supply graph. Huh? [0] [0] http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=us+gdp+chart http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met_y=ny_gdp_...