> Patiently waiting for the day where we stop pretending inflation is anything other than people in government intentionally debasing the currency personal gain

> Patiently waiting for the day where we stop pretending inflation is anything other than people in government intentionally debasing the currency personal gain. You'll be waiting forever, because this is not what it is. Ideally inflation would be 0%, but that is impossible to do because it would mean that the "money" (however defined) available matches exactly that money that is needed for the economy to run and grow. But it is impossible to know/predict a priori how much would be needed. So if you have too much money available, and more importantly moving around 'too much' (velocity), you get positive inflation. Now if you have too little money available (especially if it's 'hard money' like coins, and not credit), you get the effect of stifling economic activity: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine You also have the effect that the people who have the (literal) coin being able to charge more for it (rent seeking) because everyone else wants/needs it to do business (notwithstanding credit arrangements). So which is a bigger problem: too much money possibly allowing too much economic activity, or too little economic activity? In recent decades (post-Great Depression) the dogma is that we'd rather have positive inflation to have 'extra money' around so that activity is less hindered. Further, there is a misguided idea that government creates money: it does not. (No, not even the central bank.) Money is created by private banks through credit: * https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/how-is-money-created https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/how-is-money-crea... * https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/m... * https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1905625 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1905625 * https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/132 https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/132 And if you think that deposits are re-loaned out, this is utterly and completely wrong and out of date. Tobin called this "the old view" in 1963: * https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cowles-discussion-paper-series/388/ https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cowles-discussion-paper-...