When This Is Over

The difficulty in doing this is that the Baby Boom generation (considered 1944-1964) is still retiring, with the oldest being around 76. I assume that we are probably around the peak of that generation retiring or near retirement (that’s based on my assumption that most of that generation was born from 1944-1954). Either way we are still going to have a very high percentage of the population going on Medicare and collecting Social Security for the next ten years.

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Seens like the plan is to inflate away the debt. The problem is that would reduce the real value of social security benefits, unless they are tied to inflation

Not answering this on behalf of Republicans.

Just myself.

We are pretty close to the point of no return on the coordinated fractional reserve monetary banking system. Both the government and the entire private sector is extremely debt saturated.

At a certain point, debt saturation becomes so great in relation to the potential productive capacity of the private sector that one of two things will happen.

  1. A crack up boom.
  2. An uncontrollable hyper-inflationary spiral.

Neither party has a ******* economic clue.

The current crisis could very well push us beyond that “doom” threshold, that point were it is impossible to save the current monetary and banking system as it exists.

Instead, we would more likely see the catastrophic destruction of that system, followed hopefully by the creation of a new system that is not rooted in debt and that does not require debt for its existence.

Neither party will voluntarily give up their respective goodies.

Eternal inflation “sounded” like a good idea in 1913, but it requires SOME measure of self control by BOTH parties to be sustainable, i.e., NOT saturating the economy with debt to a degree that the potential production of the economy is unable to service that debt.

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Crack up boom?

Basically a different variety of hyperinflation, I will see if I can find a good short definition.

Both varieties end in the same place.

Basically a complete currency collapse.

Yea idk though. Wouldn’t you need an alternative currency to go to? What would be a legitimate competitor to the dollar?

If the system collapses in the United States, it will take the entire world with it, including China, the world’s economies are incredibly interlinked and interdependent. The monetary and banking systems of other countries will not survive the collapse of the Federal Reserve.

In the interim between collapse and the establishment of a new system, barter will be the rule, with precious metals in bulk serving as a crude currency for major international transactions. It could be several months before the government could pump out a new official currency.

Wouldn’t that structural foundation just further cement the value of the dollar? Why would the whole world do that to itself?

The thing is the “dollar” has NO fundamental value. Neither does any other fiat currency. They have apparent value in relation to each other, but in the end, all are backed by debt. There is no such thing as too big to fail. If the economy can’t support all the debt that is issued to back those dollars, then eventually they will catastrophically degrade in subjective value. It happened in Germany and it happened recently in Venezuela. Because of Venezuela’s relative lack of significance in the world economy, it didn’t greatly impact the United States.

As for the whole world doing it to themselves.

It is more each individual nation doing it to themselves. Not deliberately.

Rather, simply by not realizing that while inflation does allow for a constant supply of credit, there IS a hard limit to how much debt a nation can saturate itself with.

The Federal Reserve has worked in the United States from 1913 to 2020 because, even with excessive spending and debt accumulation, the combined debt of the government and the private sector was within the ability of the productive capacity of the United States to support. However, we are reaching a point where we are taking on more debt than we can handle. At some point, you have to keep a leash on the debt.

Inflation is an incredible credit tap for the government to draw on. But it simply is possible to go too far.

Hopefully the United States can step back from the precipice.

What does it mean though if price inflation doesn’t occur. Obviously monetary inflation has happened over the last decade. But interest rates and price inflation have remained pretty low? No signs of hyperinflation

Moderate inflation is preferable to no inflation or deflation as long as increases in productivity are desired. The very purpose of debt and inflation is to boost economic activity.

While the government has to avoid hyper-inflation, people need to stop talking about the Federal government as if it were like other entities. Unlike other entities, the Fed’s policies are based on macroeconomics and not personal finance.

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This was authorized under Obama not really sure what happened to those two other than I remember their report and interviews they made sounded dire.

It’s not just us think of the impact this will have on the EU, I have read some articles saying Italy which was already in bad shape economically is basically a failed state and if they don’t get a massive bailout there screwed. In which as of now the Germans are saying “Neun”. Spain is going down the same path.

Distortion caused by monetary inflation takes many forms other than price inflation on commodities, though some commodity price swings are clearly tied in at least some aspect to monetary inflation.

Most notably, all the bubbles you see are purely the result of monetary inflation. In ordinary times, basic consumables such as bread may not increase in price, due to sufficient productive capacity and reasonable demand. Instead, that new inflated money pours to other sectors such as real estate or tech sectors.

If/when hyperinflation comes (i.e. the Fed crosses the line too far) the inflationary cycle will likely kick in very quickly. The key right now is that we are NOT there yet.

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In the context of an economy built on a coordinated fractional reserve monetary and banking system. I fully understand the beast needs debt to survive and MUST inflate to some extent on a regular basis.

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It is SUPPOSED to be based on macro-economics.

In reality it is based on the political requirements of the Republican and Democratic Parties.

my goodness…

In our economic system, debt isn’t just needed to survive…debt is the primary driver.

You can’t think about it the way in which you think about it in an economy based on a finite, tangible resource. Money within our economic system is simply a value on an accounting ledger. To think or speak of the debt as if it has any physical weight to it is to mistake numbers on ledgers for some physical commodity.

The key role of the Fed in our system is drive economic productivity and to keep inflation and interest rates at a manageable level. People who point to the debt clock as if it were a measure of gold are the true scammers.

Given that money at the macroeconomic level is simply a system of accounting meant to facilitate and drive economic activity, any long term depression in a resource rich and productive nation is just a sign of collective insanity. Recessions are part of the debt cycle, but there is no need for them to be long lasting if our economic policy is at least somewhat rational.

I’d love to answer your question but this is not my field of expertise. Even if I had one. :slight_smile:

What impact would a gas tax of like 25 cents have? I’m asking because I really don’t know.

I say raise taxes on people who hate Trump. It might not raise a lot of revenue, but it would greatly improve his popularity in the polls. :wink: