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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;avr5700, post: 1596091, member: 30063&quot;]And that sort of self interest isn&#039;t good for all?</p><p><br /></p><p>Inflation by degree is direct encouragement of risky financial decisions.&nbsp; The antithesis of responsible monetary decisions on a personal and public level.&nbsp; Of course, public perspective is always about the short term, so inflation&#039;s effects are far more attractive in that venue.&nbsp; There&#039;s always greater taxation/confiscation as an option after all.&nbsp; Do we have such &#039;outs&#039; as private citizens?</p><p><br /></p><p>Inflation steals stored dollar/paper wealth.&nbsp; To avoid time value based theft, folks are motivated to add risk to their savings equation.&nbsp; Even if it were true that bonds could offset that risk safely, it&#039;s risk all the same.&nbsp; The thought continues, as public policy demonstrates, that since tomorrow&#039;s paper will be cheaper than today&#039;s, we should engage in credit based transactions...a doubling down type of risk.&nbsp; That behavior has become systemic even on a private level.&nbsp; What happens when these risks turn out badly for those that take them...bailout of one type or another...mainly a penalty to the fiscally responsible parties since it is they that will likely fund it in real terms.&nbsp; So, remind me, what good is inflation?&nbsp; Inflation creates more of its own down side until the entire system is sure to burst.&nbsp; What was so wrong with the value of the dollar back in 1900 or 1930 that made it necessary to demote it so greatly to where we find it today?&nbsp; Has income really offset all of that value destruction?&nbsp; I expect it&#039;s a rigged game that transfers wealth to those that can control it.&nbsp; But what do I know...I&#039;m only following the money trail with such thoughts.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the other hand, deflation is rewarding to those that have saved for the future.&nbsp; Why teach a child to save when spending it all immediately yields the greatest realizable benefit?&nbsp; If inflation is short sighted, I suggest that deflation is the compliment thereof.&nbsp; Have no shame in advocation for a mild/stable deflationary trend.&nbsp; That would promote healthy long term financial decision making, not the ever greater gamble that inflation has yielded.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;I wonder how much of this inflation/deflation concern is a false dichotomy.&nbsp; How about a policy of net zero inflation/deflation as the goal?&nbsp; Oddly, our low interest rate environment is closer to that now than it has been in recent decades, yet the inflationary effects are still building (coming home to roost really).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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