The word is 'inflation' is overloaded to mean both depending on the context. It can mean inflation of the price of things, which may be driven by supply constr

The word is 'inflation' is overloaded to mean both depending on the context. It can mean inflation of the price of things, which may be driven by supply constraints OR demand changes OR currency debasement. This is notoriously difficult to calculate a single value for, because all goods and services can oscillate wildly in prices in both direction. Electronics and mass produced things are a strongly deflationary good because they're constantly becoming less scarce while food, education, health care, and housing are significantly inflationary in price, because they're not getting less scarce at faster than demand. It's impossible to give single CPI style inflation number that isn't deceptive in some way, because to do so, you have to put every person in a box and declare a "standard" basket of goods that everyone is expected to consume. But reality is messy, so my basket of good is likely going to be quite different from yours. Everything from diets, the types of education and housing we choose, the transportation choices available to us, our reproductive choices, and the hobbies we pursue can be radically different, which can mean that your "true price inflation" can be radically different from my "true price inflation" and both radically different from official and heavily manipulated government CPI numbers. Inflation can also mean the inflation of the currency supply. This is the more traditional definition, and it gives a simpler way to understand whether prices for goods and services are rising because of changes to supply and demand, or if the prices of goods are rising because there's suddenly a lot more units of currency available to chase those scare real things. And of course, when it becomes clear that it's the currency getting rapidly debased, people start hoarding the actually scarce goods and resources, because the money is becoming toilet paper, and that's bad for all of us, because hoarding scarce real world resources that we don't need right now is bad for all of civilization.