full speed ahead!

[jonathankaplan]

Okay, I give up

Comments

[madbard]

Suppose the currencies of all other nations collapse in exact proportion to the dollar? Then everything will stay the same!

[thetalkingmoose]

Just out of curiosity, where are you seeing this? The economists whose opinions I read and keep up with (the ones who stated in 2005 we were in an unsustainable housing bubble and said in 2009 that the stimulus package passed by Congress would be woefully insufficient) insist that a deflationary recession similar to the one suffered by Japan for much of the '90s and '00s is still far more likely than hyperinflation. I'd like to read the sources you base your belief upon.

[ernunnos]

Those economists are part of the reason why we'll have inflation. They're talking their book, and people listen. Including people who have the power to give us inflation instead.

[thetalkingmoose]

Actually, no one in power is listening to them. Take a look at Paul Krugman's blog and the things he's been writing. If they were being listened to, measures to ease the housing bubble might have been enacted in 2005. Instead, they were being dismissed as cranks and pessimists. In early 2009, they argued for a much bigger stimulus package and stated that the smaller one that passed would only provide a temporary economic boost and that by the end of 2010 we would see unemployment numbers above the projections of those pushing the package. Turns out they were wrong -- the unemployment numbers right now are worse than anyone, including economists such as Krugman, was projecting in 2009.

You can only argue they have been listened to if their actual suggestions were implemented. Half-assed implementations of their ideas do not prove them wrong.

[adb_jaeger]

Take a look at Paul Krugman's blog and the things he's been writing. If they were being listened to, measures to ease the housing bubble might have been enacted in 2005

Krugman? The guy who *wanted* Greenspan to create a housing bubble?

That Krugman?

...and they aren't going to stop, cause politically, they can't.

[polyanarch]

I suppose it doesn't matter which brick wall we hit when we hit it full speed ahead.

Regardless, sooner or later were going to find a wall to hit. That much is certain.

They just can't stop themselves.

[kenshi]

I think you're significantly under-estimating the effect social mood changes will have on the political process while all this is going on.

[kenshi]

First off, the Annenberg-funded factcheck.org is a partisan organization (though it pretends otherwise), so I have to take anything they post with a grain of salt

[corwyn_ap]

So the important question becomes, what can I (and others) do to mitigate the problem for ourselves? Especially those of us not wealthy.

[ernunnos]

1. Get out of debt. Yes, it's true that theoretically if we get into an inflationary spiral where wages rise in an attempt to outpace inflation, debtors benefit. If you owe $10k on your car, and that becomes a week's wages, well, free car. But more likely, we'll get stagflation or an inflationary squeeze, where costs go up and your wages don't. Even if your car payment doesn't go up, and the lender gets screwed as you pay him back in dollars that don't buy as much, you're now trying to make that car payment while spending x% more for gas, food, electricity, etc. Getting out of debt increases your headroom. And it's a good idea anyway. If we're all wrong, hey, you're still debt-free. DaveRamsey.com is a good place to start on that. (He's an evangelical Christian and I'm an atheist, but he gives good basic advice and encouragement that applies to anyone