The Unnatural Phenomenon of Inflation

Today on CNBC they said one could make a pile of money if one could guess when they would raise rates again. This highlights one of the biggest atrocities in the World’s economic system. Trillions of dollars are tied up in the currency futures, hedging the wild swings in the value of currency, trillions that could be invested in productive activities, if only the world had a stable unit of account. The price of commodities didn’t budge an inch from 1920-1971, 51 years of the greatest economic growth in world history. Then in 1971, at the urging of the monetarists, Nixon closed the London Gold window. Gold was $35 an ounce then, and oil was $3.50 a barrel. Inflation is not a natural occurring phenomenon, and especially not due to growth and prosperity. The only thing that causes inflation and deflation is an imbalance in the amount of liquidity in the system, a balance that is the single and only charter of the Federal Reserve. It is a failure of epic proportions.