[BGHater]

Board of Directors

[4rcane]

in other words they want to depreciate the USD, encourage going into debt and not savings. Good for Wall Street, bad for Main street

Buy gold/silver and protect yourself from these idiot economists!

[Sprite518]

Stupid it never works.... It has been tried and it fails every time...

[ecomcon]

The only problem that matters is that there will never, EVER be cuts in spending. They will borrow even WITH high inflation until the country is bankrupt, unable to defend itself, and made war upon.

[Kakaze]

oh just print money, what the heck.

[Gaffer]

I've wondered what would happen to existing commercial/bank loans, etc. when the economic she-ite hits the fan....dollar ain't worth spit...loan is in fixed dollars....lendors get the short end (that is IF they can't change terms like credit card issuers can)....

Trouble with this is you have to have a job, and your compensation has to rise with the hyperinflation - which is certainly going to lag a bunch....

[SES1066]

You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

Sound familiar? William Jennings Bryan at the Democrat National Convention 1896 in CHICAGO of all places. The urge to inflate away debt is probably as old as money and both this concept and this old speech are exemplars of it.

It is a superficially attractive concept and attracts demagogues by the dozens. I remember the stagflation of the 1970s and inflation rates of 12% when standard house mortgages went for 12-14% and people bemoaned the good old 8% before inflation. Given my choice, I regard inflation with complete enmity although I know economists say that we need low single digit inflation to keep the system growing!

[nmh]

Zimbabwe here we come!

[Petronski]

He provides this chart showing that our debt has grown while inflation has stayed low.

The man's crack use has grown while his heroin use has stayed flat....the solution is obvious: use more heroin too!

[cranked]

Why don’t they just plant and grow a state-sized groove of money trees? =.=

[C19fan]

Isn’t it convenient that the author to make his argument breaks the post WWII era at 1980 artificially boosting the “average” inflation rate incorporating the inflationary late 60s and especially 70s but gets growth up by including the post-war boom. As his charts clearly show the US had spectecular growth from the end of WW II to the mid-1960s with inflaton running under 2%.

[truthguy]

This is theft, plain and simple. For those who have done the right thing and saved and invested, this is an outrage. The government is stealing your money by devaluing it. They know what they are doing and they have no conscience.

Like most I'm familiar with The Nation magazine and I'm not surprised someone affiliated with this wretched publication would come up with a terrible idea like this.

[jtal]

Sure, let’s trade “debtor serfdom” for “inflation serfdom.”

And it’s interesting that the left never sees government dependence as serfdom.

Those of us with reasonable living habits are getting quite weary of having our responsible behavior punished by the government.

[FromLori]

[parsifal]

Actually, one of the smartest ideas I have heard in ages. I have been thinking for a couple of decades that our fears of inflation are over-rated. This would have to be done very carefully.

parsy, who thinks in strange ways.

[UncleVanya]

TAKE ACTION NOW - NO MORE SITTING ON THE SIDELINES
The thing we have to do now, without any hesitation, is vote out this current Congress in 2010. Then take back our Nation in 2012. If we do not mobilize ourselves and others now to do this in ways far beyond where most of us have ever engaged in political matters, we will lose this country. And have ourselves to blame.
FRIENDS, WE CAN NO LONGER JUST 'PREACH TO THE CHOIR' -- WE MUST CARRY THIS MESSAGE TO ALL WE KNOW AND ACT NOW. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.