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With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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politics
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Inflation is a rate of change.
If prices went up a lot last year, but they're not going up much now, inflation now is low.
"Low inflation" doesn't mean prices going down or the value of the dollar going up relative to a basket of goods. That would be "deflation".
My bad, am I mixing up inflation and cost-of-living? I'm trying to understand the economy jargon better.
The point still stands that the rate of inflation is down but we still have to deal with that long period of time AKA 2022 where it didn't dip below 7.5%.
Nothing any government can do will undo the high inflation of 2022. Deflation must be avoided, because while consumer prices would go back down, the main effect of long-term deflation is that everybody stops investing and starts saving. Why would I buy new tools now when I can wait for tomorrow and get them cheaper then? When the entire economy does that, it shrinks. Catastrophic for capitalism. Prices are what they are, they've stopped going up, can't realistically wish for more.
Furthermore to blame high inflation on the Biden administration shows a complete lack of journalistic integrity. Like blaming the '08 crisis on Obama. Both were worldwide events which, if the US weren't so god-damn self-centered, anyone could realize were just as bad or even worse in other developed countries. In 2022 most of the Eurozone was well above US inflation levels (without going too technical, the US Fed had more leeway to much more aggressively raise interest rates to reign in inflation, which it did successfully).
Now there is plenty of blame to be passed around for a lot of specific economic policy items that impact cost-of-living (wages, housing, student debt, etc.). Inflation isn't one of them.
Alright, you burned most of the money. In other terms, you defaulted on most of your debts to reset the economy.
No foreigner is willing to loan you any money any more. Global trade with the US collapses. Fertilizer, semiconductors, cars, fuel, etc. Domestic investment collapses as well, so does GDP, tax revenue, and therefore public services.
Historically, countries implementing these bright ideas ended up with a crisis so bad it brought on widespread famines and food/fuel rationing. 5c fuel is great and all except when you can only get one gallon a week.
Oh, and that "one million remaining" dollars? Guess who gets 99% of it? The army and the generals, that's who. What are you gonna do, not pay the guys with the guns?
The US economy is doing just fine, save for the wealth inequality. You don't need to "reset" anything, just redistribute that wealth. Maybe start implementing proper taxation of the ultra-rich and of big corporations, see where that leads you, no need to collapse the economy to get there.