> the amount of money in circulation should match the amount of wealth produced Economists tend to believe a little inflation is helpful[1], and to disagree on

> the amount of money in circulation should match the amount of wealth produced Economists tend to believe a little inflation is helpful[1], and to disagree on how much. If the money supply increased by exactly as much as total wealth (which is different than the total output in a given year), the average price level would be constant. Such a scenario has never lasted very long anywhere. (Inflation and deflation both happen, but precisely "zero flation" is extremely hard to achieve, even if you wanted it for some reason.) There's also a giant rabbit whole around how to define the average price level. It's an extremely hard problem -- what people produce, and what they need, varies from year to year, and durable goods depreciate by variable amounts, and much of our wealth is in intangible things like the recipes for vaccines with real but uncertain future payouts, and we can only hope to survey a subsample of the data. There's no obvious best approach. [1] https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/moderate-inflation-is-a-kind-of-economic-lubricant-1.1753291 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/moderate-inflati...