The Permanent Temptation of All Governments
25th August 2024
The book begins, “In 2021, inflation emerged from a multi-decade hibernation.” Well, inflation had not really been in hibernation, but rather was continuing at a rate which had become considered acceptable. It was worry about inflation that had been hibernating. People found themselves caught up in the runaway inflation of 2021-2023, a wake-up call. As the book explores at length, that explosive inflation had been unexpected by the central banks, including the Federal Reserve, making their forecasts and assurances look particularly bad and proving once again that their knowledge of the future is as poor as everybody else’s.
The dollar has lost two-thirds of its purchasing power since I was in college in the mid-1970s. When Franklin Roosevelt stole everybody’s gold in 1933, it was worth $20 an ounce. Look at the price today. That tells you everything you need to know about inflation