3 ms·

Inflation is not necessarily a bug or something you “need to solve”.

boplicity 5y ago
Inflation is a feature, not a bug. It discourages hoarding of money -- and encourages putting it to use, as opposed to letting is slowly lose its value. Too much inflation, of course, is bad, but a small amount offers the right incentives with very few downsides.
- danuker 5y ago
  Putting it to use where? Stocks are at ridiculous valuations, and bonds have negative real yield. That's not really encouraging investment.
- qeternity 5y ago
  Inflation encourages consumption, in the same way that returns on capital encourage investment. We need both, and sometimes we need more of one or the other. Anyone who thinks moderate inflation is bad does not understand deflation.
- berkes 5y ago
  Not even classical one-sided economic schools like "Keynesian" are as absolute as you pose it here. Inflation, nor deflation are bad. Too much of any is. The common consensus is that the scales, on average, should lean a little towards inflation. But only a little. And not always.
  - starfallg 5y ago
    >Inflation, nor deflation are bad. Too much of any is. The common consensus is that the scales, on average, should lean a little towards inflation. But only a little. And not always. I think the common consensus is that any deflation is too much. What's contentious is just how much inflation is acceptable and how much is counterproductive to economic growth.
    - berkes 5y ago
      > I think the common consensus is that any deflation is too much. This depends on how broad you define it. We've seen deflation for the past decade now. In the sense that the buying power of your savings on a traditional savings account have shrunk, while official inflation was below zero at points. We've now bounced back to "high" inflation. None of this is bad, as we can see clearly by how well tech has benefitted from this (cheap loans, beneficial DCF). This is even policy.
      - starfallg 5y ago
        >None of this is bad, as we can see clearly by how well tech has benefitted from this (cheap loans, beneficial DCF). This is even policy. This led to a lot of economic problems with zombie businesses that were able to continue to trade only due to cheap loans and continued asset price growth sans proportionate economic growth. Any this was before we saw any significant periods of real deflation.

Inflation is a feature, not a bug. It discourages hoarding of money -- and encourages putting it to use, as opposed to letting is slowly lose its value. Too much inflation, of course, is bad, but a small amount offers the right incentives with very few downsides.

danuker 5y ago
Putting it to use where? Stocks are at ridiculous valuations, and bonds have negative real yield. That's not really encouraging investment.
qeternity 5y ago
Inflation encourages consumption, in the same way that returns on capital encourage investment. We need both, and sometimes we need more of one or the other. Anyone who thinks moderate inflation is bad does not understand deflation.
berkes 5y ago
Not even classical one-sided economic schools like "Keynesian" are as absolute as you pose it here. Inflation, nor deflation are bad. Too much of any is. The common consensus is that the scales, on average, should lean a little towards inflation. But only a little. And not always.
- starfallg 5y ago
  >Inflation, nor deflation are bad. Too much of any is. The common consensus is that the scales, on average, should lean a little towards inflation. But only a little. And not always. I think the common consensus is that any deflation is too much. What's contentious is just how much inflation is acceptable and how much is counterproductive to economic growth.
  - berkes 5y ago
    > I think the common consensus is that any deflation is too much. This depends on how broad you define it. We've seen deflation for the past decade now. In the sense that the buying power of your savings on a traditional savings account have shrunk, while official inflation was below zero at points. We've now bounced back to "high" inflation. None of this is bad, as we can see clearly by how well tech has benefitted from this (cheap loans, beneficial DCF). This is even policy.
    - starfallg 5y ago
      >None of this is bad, as we can see clearly by how well tech has benefitted from this (cheap loans, beneficial DCF). This is even policy. This led to a lot of economic problems with zombie businesses that were able to continue to trade only due to cheap loans and continued asset price growth sans proportionate economic growth. Any this was before we saw any significant periods of real deflation.