Comments on: Deja Vu All Over Again. Once More.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:34:15 +0000

I agree with everything you’ve said about the pending inflation that we could face except for one thing. In order for inflation to take hold, the vast amounts of money the Fed has printed must reach the economy, the consumer, and the borrowers. However, the banks have been hoarding all the cash they took from the Fed, refusing to lend it, and because of that, this money will not enter the economy. What are the banks doing with this money? They are turning right around and buying short term Treasury bills where it sits, but allows the banks to meet FDIC standards of capitalization. Bottom line, none of this money is circulating in the economy and thus no inflation. As long as this scenario holds, inflation, in my opinion, is still years off.

By: steve jones

steve jones — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:19:16 +0000

Down with….Yeah, we know Bush did it you butt plug, country hating LIBDEM. Go push your boyfriends cinamon role hole in.

By: Dennis (EU)

Dennis (EU) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:53:58 +0000

As we live in a globalised world and all western countries (EU, UK, Japan, Australia and US) have chosen for quantitive easing, shortterm it will be almost impossible to trigger inflation. But if it does, eventually, it will be harsh, global and unstoppable.
But first we have a few years of deflation, no matter how much money is pumped into the market. Clear is that Governments exactly make the same mistakes as the banks: they will go broke – and who will then be there to save THEM???

By: The Daily Eudemon

The Daily Eudemon — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:59:16 +0000

[...] hit my head with a thud. I found the cool picture that I inserted at the top of this post (here), but that’s [...]

By: Jon Livesey

Jon Livesey — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:38:31 +0000

Bill, you really should know better. German reparations were not paid in gold, and they did not leave the Germans without gold, nor did they lead to hyperinflation. Reparations were payable in deliveries of commodities, and in reality, as Kindleberger notes, no more than one fourteenth part of reparations were ever paid, and most of what was paid was in the form of credits for lost territories. Kindelberger notes that Germany even asked for a credit against reparations to compensate it for the loss of its battle-fleet. It did not get it.

Hyperinflation was a deliberate German policy to erase its internal, not its external debt. Germany fought the War on credit, the same way it fought its three previous wars of aggression. In the three previous wars, Germany was able to extract its costs from its victims, but it lost in 1914-18, and ended the war owing enormous sums to its own citizens. Hyperinflation erased those debts.

And we should also note that, despite urban legends, hyperinflation did not benefit Hitler. He tried to mount a coup in the twenties during hyperinflation, got no support at all, and ended in jail.

Hitler did not get support from the German people until the Depression started, nearly a decade later, and German unemployment soared.

The version of events you have presented is essentially Nazi pre-war propaganda, and I think that it’s outrageous that a serious blog would uncritically repeat such lies.

I think you should consider editing and correcting this piece.

By: DownWithConservatism

DownWithConservatism — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:28:51 +0000

“Brutality triumphed because civilized life was smothered by inflation. ”

That’s completely misleading. BEFORE Weimar inflation started, the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian empire had engaged in a utterly stupid and deranged war, which the american military joined for the same deranged reasons they always do.

Western civilization took a big hit way before inflation become common. I’m not saying inflation is any good, but militarism is way worse.