re: #36 KGxvi

The biggest problem is that inflation is regarded as a ‘problem’. In my opinion, it’s not. It’s a diagnostic reading.

Having 0% inflation would be like having a room temperature body temp. Which is more commonly known as a corpse. A high body temp will cause a doctor to start looking for an infection of some type. But since inflation is a ‘problem’ economists treat the inflation rather than look for a cause.

As a result much of our treatment for inflation is on the same level as bleeding in medicine. Yeah, it works, kinda. But it can too often lead to a corpse.

I recall about forty years ago, when we still had a Progressive-Conservative party in Canada and it formed the federal government, it was decided that inflation had to be bought down to zero. Thanks to a ‘report’ from The Fraser Institute, Canada’s version of the Heritage Foundation.

Interest rates were jammed through the roof. In excess of twenty percent. It was the equivalent of jamming a pillow over the economy’s face. We’re still paying off debts at those rates.

And the Fraser Institute is still influential among the authoritarians and barbarians masquerading as conservatives. Oh, and the Progressive-Conservatives vanished from Canadian federal politics.