15 ms·

Problem? No, it's working as designed: as a plausibly deniable mechanism to print trillions for rich people. Meanwhile, inflation will be blamed on the billions

Problem? No, it's working as designed: as a plausibly deniable mechanism to print trillions for rich people. Meanwhile, inflation will be blamed on the billions printed for poor people. "Balance sheet that never rolls off" is very much in the same genre as "loan that is actually a grant" and "financing tax cuts with debt."

konfusinomicon 4y ago
I dabble in news sources from both sides of the aisle and I've not heard the opinion that inflation is a result of poor people, only that its the result of a perfect storm of the pandemic and an unjust war halfway across the world, which mostly makes sense... who is blaming the poor?
- __john 4y ago
  Everyone knows inflation is because of the stimmies. edit: /s
  - ZoomerCretin 4y ago
    Often what everyone knows to be true and what is actually true are distinct.
  - stusmall 4y ago
    I guess "everyone" is wrong. The huge influx of money is part of it but the current inflation doesn't have just one cause. There is a huge spike in energy costs partially from the war in Ukraine, partially from a decrease in production by the prices cratering in 2020 and partially from an increase in demand. There are huge supply chain problems everywhere. Massive labor shortages. I'm sure I'm missing some others. This isn't a simple problem with a simple cause.
  - themitigating 4y ago
    That doesn't mean it's right and most people haven't researched this they are just told it by the media
- lifeplusplus 4y ago
  People mean poor people when targeting stimulus checks
- Mountain_Skies 4y ago
  It appears that one side is fantasizing about what they'd like the other side to say so they can attack on that. Of course, we're talking about a country of over 330 million so it is possible to find someone somewhere that holds any given opinion even if it's not widely shared.
  - vkou 4y ago
    It's not a fantasy to observe that the right-wing of the American political spectrum spent most of 2020 and 2021 screaming about individual handouts and unemployment benefits, while only raising a token protest about PPP loans, and the firehose of money that the Fed started dumping into the capital markets, starting in March 2020. In reality, all of those steps were necessary to prevent economic disaster, but now that disaster has been averted, and wages started rising, everyone's clutching their pearls about inflation.
  - jjoonathan 4y ago
    The "stimmies caused inflation" narrative doesn't just exist, it's widespread on the right. If you aren't hearing it, you probably have a small window. Reading Ground, for example. In any case, the team sports side of this is much less interesting than the part that transcends team sports: both sides devote more media attention to the smaller money printers. Not by a small margin, either. That's an interesting choice. Does submarine go blub? Or does making the big money printer boring and complicated completely cloak it from view? Either way, it's an impressive multi-trillion dollar sleight of hand.
- fleetwoodsnack 4y ago
  There are a number of fiscal and monetary mechanisms available to central governments and central banks respectively, which are used to spur economic activity and to relieve economic hardship: by directing government spending or by creating monetary liquidity. The assertion is not so much that poor people cause inflation; rather, that inflationary fiscal and monetary policies are often only recognized as such when they happen to benefit middle-to-lower income people. Example: PPP Covid programs which pay business owners billions is necessary and proper given the circumstances, but direct payments to taxpayers is not because it will cause inflation. In truth, they both provide relief, and they both contribute to inflation.
- themitigating 4y ago
  They blame government spending
onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
Define inflation. Assets have been artificially inflated for a very long time due to QE and low interest rates and the Fed's balance sheet. If that were single handedly the reason for corn and lumber to get more expensive (general inflation) - we should've seen that a long time ago. There's a lot going on - and it's hard to blame everything on the Fed. Rising inequality? Sure. General inflation? Not convinced.
- vkou 4y ago
  My guess is rising wages. When wages go up, it can either go at the expense of profits, or at the expense of prices (Or, most usually, both). The labour shortage in the pandemic created upward wage pressure, which added to existing pressure[1] caused by rising housing/healthcare costs. Notice how interest rates went up, as unemployment hit an all-time low? Capitalists hate low unemployment, as it causes wages to go up. Raising interest rates cools off the market, reduces the number of speculative investments, and increases unemployment. There's a reason that the government always wants a few million people to always be jobless. It puts the brakes on wage growth. [1] This is most notable in resort towns. As housing prices went up, nobody who works a service job can afford to live in them anymore - so all the workers pack up, and move to the city. As a result, businesses either have to raise wages, or shut down, or significantly reduce their hours. For some reason, tech folks vacationing in their lakeside dachas aren't keen on putting in a few hours at the local grocery.
  - gopher_space 4y ago
    > As a result, businesses either have to raise wages, or shut down, or significantly reduce their hours. If these were your only choices you were on the edge of profitability right before a global pandemic hit. Plenty of reasons for that. Commercial Rent Control is "progressive" and the people who own property like this can afford to let it sit vacant indefinitely and will literally abandon this amount of profit because they feel like it.
    - vkou 4y ago
      This started before the pandemic hit, the pandemic just accelerated the growth of housing prices in those towns, as remote-workers started moving to them.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

konfusinomicon 4y ago

I dabble in news sources from both sides of the aisle and I've not heard the opinion that inflation is a result of poor people, only that its the result of a perfect storm of the pandemic and an unjust war halfway across the world, which mostly makes sense... who is blaming the poor?

__john 4y ago
Everyone knows inflation is because of the stimmies. edit: /s
- ZoomerCretin 4y ago
  Often what everyone knows to be true and what is actually true are distinct.
- stusmall 4y ago
  I guess "everyone" is wrong. The huge influx of money is part of it but the current inflation doesn't have just one cause. There is a huge spike in energy costs partially from the war in Ukraine, partially from a decrease in production by the prices cratering in 2020 and partially from an increase in demand. There are huge supply chain problems everywhere. Massive labor shortages. I'm sure I'm missing some others. This isn't a simple problem with a simple cause.
- themitigating 4y ago
  That doesn't mean it's right and most people haven't researched this they are just told it by the media
lifeplusplus 4y ago
People mean poor people when targeting stimulus checks
Mountain_Skies 4y ago
It appears that one side is fantasizing about what they'd like the other side to say so they can attack on that. Of course, we're talking about a country of over 330 million so it is possible to find someone somewhere that holds any given opinion even if it's not widely shared.
- vkou 4y ago
  It's not a fantasy to observe that the right-wing of the American political spectrum spent most of 2020 and 2021 screaming about individual handouts and unemployment benefits, while only raising a token protest about PPP loans, and the firehose of money that the Fed started dumping into the capital markets, starting in March 2020. In reality, all of those steps were necessary to prevent economic disaster, but now that disaster has been averted, and wages started rising, everyone's clutching their pearls about inflation.
- jjoonathan 4y ago
  The "stimmies caused inflation" narrative doesn't just exist, it's widespread on the right. If you aren't hearing it, you probably have a small window. Reading Ground, for example. In any case, the team sports side of this is much less interesting than the part that transcends team sports: both sides devote more media attention to the smaller money printers. Not by a small margin, either. That's an interesting choice. Does submarine go blub? Or does making the big money printer boring and complicated completely cloak it from view? Either way, it's an impressive multi-trillion dollar sleight of hand.
fleetwoodsnack 4y ago
There are a number of fiscal and monetary mechanisms available to central governments and central banks respectively, which are used to spur economic activity and to relieve economic hardship: by directing government spending or by creating monetary liquidity. The assertion is not so much that poor people cause inflation; rather, that inflationary fiscal and monetary policies are often only recognized as such when they happen to benefit middle-to-lower income people. Example: PPP Covid programs which pay business owners billions is necessary and proper given the circumstances, but direct payments to taxpayers is not because it will cause inflation. In truth, they both provide relief, and they both contribute to inflation.
themitigating 4y ago
They blame government spending

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago

Define inflation. Assets have been artificially inflated for a very long time due to QE and low interest rates and the Fed's balance sheet. If that were single handedly the reason for corn and lumber to get more expensive (general inflation) - we should've seen that a long time ago. There's a lot going on - and it's hard to blame everything on the Fed. Rising inequality? Sure. General inflation? Not convinced.

vkou 4y ago
My guess is rising wages. When wages go up, it can either go at the expense of profits, or at the expense of prices (Or, most usually, both). The labour shortage in the pandemic created upward wage pressure, which added to existing pressure[1] caused by rising housing/healthcare costs. Notice how interest rates went up, as unemployment hit an all-time low? Capitalists hate low unemployment, as it causes wages to go up. Raising interest rates cools off the market, reduces the number of speculative investments, and increases unemployment. There's a reason that the government always wants a few million people to always be jobless. It puts the brakes on wage growth. [1] This is most notable in resort towns. As housing prices went up, nobody who works a service job can afford to live in them anymore - so all the workers pack up, and move to the city. As a result, businesses either have to raise wages, or shut down, or significantly reduce their hours. For some reason, tech folks vacationing in their lakeside dachas aren't keen on putting in a few hours at the local grocery.
- gopher_space 4y ago
  > As a result, businesses either have to raise wages, or shut down, or significantly reduce their hours. If these were your only choices you were on the edge of profitability right before a global pandemic hit. Plenty of reasons for that. Commercial Rent Control is "progressive" and the people who own property like this can afford to let it sit vacant indefinitely and will literally abandon this amount of profit because they feel like it.
  - vkou 4y ago
    This started before the pandemic hit, the pandemic just accelerated the growth of housing prices in those towns, as remote-workers started moving to them.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]