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>That stimulus check you got? The stimulus check represented 804 billion dollars in direct to citizen spending of the government's 6 trillion dollars in spendi

>That stimulus check you got? The stimulus check represented 804 billion dollars in direct to citizen spending of the government's 6 trillion dollars in spending. If your argument is "giving money directly to individuals causes inflation" we can start there, but government spending alone does not cause inflation; the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act did not meaningfully grow inflation. We probably would not know fully in 5-10 years, but my own hypothesis is that America had it's own dark labor pool of incredibly cheap labor and when (1) Citizens were allowed to have some breathing room and look for better oppurtunities and (2) the CBP used Covid to massively ramp up deportations, labor became more expensive which clearly affected the rest of the economy.

WalterBright 5y ago
> but government spending alone does not cause inflation I didn't say that, either. I was clearly talking about deficit spending.
- nemothekid 5y ago
  This isn't a meaningful distinction. The United States has been deficit spending since 9/11, and the last large deficit spending was the 2008 crisis, which did not lead to any meaningful inflation.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    I seem to recall many of those giant loans were paid back. That isn't inflationary.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - nemothekid 5y ago
      This seems like its going to be a continual moving of goal posts until there is no data to back any position. Before the loans were paid back, inflation went negative. To be clear, I'm not arguing that the government can and should spend their way out of any crisis; the point I'm trying to get across, which you keep evading is that there is no data to back your claim that government spending led directly to inflation, especially when there are so many other obvious factors. In fact, before 2020, there is no modern economy where you could clearly point to and say "the government overspent, and caused massive inflation". Japan desperately tried to spend it's way to inflation and failed. For something that is a "law of nature", there seems to be so few data points to back it up. As far as I can tell, it's a neoliberal talking point used to dissuade any form of direct to citizen welfare.
      - WalterBright 5y ago
        > led directly to inflation I wish people would stop adding words to my statements, and then arguing based on the added word. In this case, "directly". > In fact, before 2020, there is no modern economy where you could clearly point to and say "the government overspent, and caused massive inflation". Did you forget the 1970's United States? Expanding on that, from 1800 to 1914 the US had zero net inflation. Zero. We've had inflation ever since. What changed in 1914? The switch to a fiat money system, which enables endless deficit spending. The same thing happened with every other country that switched to fiat money. Yes, I know about Japan, but not much about it. I did read that they have no GDP growth. The lack of inflation could be because people simply stash their money in the bank, keeping the excess money out of the economy.
        typicalset 5y ago
        > Expanding on that, from 1800 to 1914 the US had zero net inflation. Zero. This is simply false [1]. [1]: https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator/consumer-price-index-1800- https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/infl...
        WalterBright 5y ago
culopatin 5y ago
It’s a supply/demand issue exacerbated by the fuel price rise. Now that inflation is setting in, the next wave is the psychological change in the market. When people start making their price adjustments in advance because they expect inflation, that’s a tough one to change.

WalterBright 5y ago

> but government spending alone does not cause inflation I didn't say that, either. I was clearly talking about deficit spending.

nemothekid 5y ago
This isn't a meaningful distinction. The United States has been deficit spending since 9/11, and the last large deficit spending was the 2008 crisis, which did not lead to any meaningful inflation.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- WalterBright 5y ago
  I seem to recall many of those giant loans were paid back. That isn't inflationary.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - nemothekid 5y ago
    This seems like its going to be a continual moving of goal posts until there is no data to back any position. Before the loans were paid back, inflation went negative. To be clear, I'm not arguing that the government can and should spend their way out of any crisis; the point I'm trying to get across, which you keep evading is that there is no data to back your claim that government spending led directly to inflation, especially when there are so many other obvious factors. In fact, before 2020, there is no modern economy where you could clearly point to and say "the government overspent, and caused massive inflation". Japan desperately tried to spend it's way to inflation and failed. For something that is a "law of nature", there seems to be so few data points to back it up. As far as I can tell, it's a neoliberal talking point used to dissuade any form of direct to citizen welfare.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      > led directly to inflation I wish people would stop adding words to my statements, and then arguing based on the added word. In this case, "directly". > In fact, before 2020, there is no modern economy where you could clearly point to and say "the government overspent, and caused massive inflation". Did you forget the 1970's United States? Expanding on that, from 1800 to 1914 the US had zero net inflation. Zero. We've had inflation ever since. What changed in 1914? The switch to a fiat money system, which enables endless deficit spending. The same thing happened with every other country that switched to fiat money. Yes, I know about Japan, but not much about it. I did read that they have no GDP growth. The lack of inflation could be because people simply stash their money in the bank, keeping the excess money out of the economy.
      - typicalset 5y ago
        > Expanding on that, from 1800 to 1914 the US had zero net inflation. Zero. This is simply false [1]. [1]: https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator/consumer-price-index-1800- https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/infl...
        WalterBright 5y ago

culopatin 5y ago

It’s a supply/demand issue exacerbated by the fuel price rise. Now that inflation is setting in, the next wave is the psychological change in the market. When people start making their price adjustments in advance because they expect inflation, that’s a tough one to change.