Inflation
In economics, inflation is a general rise in the price of goods and services in relation to purchasing power. Inflation is not caused by global warming or any natural phenomena. Inflation is caused directly by the people whom voters elect to office. It is intended to rob workers of their wealth and to discourage savings, investment, and capital accumulation. Inflation creates panic buying, as workers spend their paychecks quickly before their money loses any more value. Inflation is a hallmark of Socialism.
High inflation undermines the economy's ability to generate long-lasting growth and job creation. High inflation erodes the value of incomes and savings. People on fixed incomes, including the elderly and poor are particularly vulnerable to inflation. Social Security payments are adjusted to inflation months or years after the fact and typically when inflation has already accelerated to higher levels.
Under the socialist Biden regime and its transition to a socialist economy, inflation reached a 40 year high during its first 10 months with no end in sight.
Hyperinflation
Hyperinflation is out of control inflation and has occurred when there is a massive imbalance between the supply and demand and a complete loss of confidence in the currency. It has occurred when prices are decontrolled by central governments, like in the economic collapse of the USSR, where inflation reached over 1000% in some areas.[1]
The worst episodes of hyperinflation historically have been in Weimar Germany in 1923 (after World War I), Hungary and China after World War II, Chile under Salvadore Allende, and Zimbabwe in the late 2000s.
At the peak of the inflationary cycle during the Weimar Republic, workers were paid twice daily in wheelbarrows. Currency was rubber-stamped with extra zeros because new currency could not be printed fast enough.
Political instability
In some societies, political decisions control the supply of currency. If a fiat currency is devalued due to an increase in the total money supply, inflation will result.
Measures of inflation
For a more detailed treatment, see consumer price index.
The common measure for consumers formerly was the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Economists prefer a broader measure, the "implicit GDP deflator", which includes the prices of non-consumer items like highways and factories.
The CPI reflects changes in the price of a representative "basket" of goods and services sold:
- food
- housing
- transportation
- furniture
- clothing
- recreation
- other items
The inflation rate is expressed as a percentage increase in average prices over a year. For example, if the cost of the CPI "basket" rises from $100 one year ago to $110 today, the current inflation rate is 10 per cent. When the CPI rises, the purchasing power of currency and value of a worker's labor falls.[2]
Quotes on Inflation
- âThe way to crush the middle class is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.â -- Lenin
Joeflation
During Joe Biden's term, the spike in inflation was especially hard towards 2021 Thanksgiving day, most Americans affected, polled, blamed Biden.[3]
See also
References
- â [1] Inflation Indicators Ukraine
- â Wanniski, Jude. "Money and Tax Rates." In Wanniski. The Way the World Works. 1978.
- â Mark Moore, "More than 75% of US hit by inflation and most blame Biden, poll shows," NYPost, Nov 24, 2021
External links
- Inflation converter by year
- "Purchasing Power of Money in the United States from 1774 to 2008", translates the value of a dollar in one year to the value today or any year
- How to explain inflation to Marxists - Romanian TVee