Nate posts his latest entry in the Great Debate:
I know I said I would finally be explaining Hyper Inflation here, and I will be. But there are a couple of points that Vox has made that I simply cannot let stand. So as much as I loathe the call and response style of written debate, it appears I must resort to it. I beg your indulgence….
Given that Vox acknowledges that there was a period of time when credit was contracting… and prices were going up, the actual timing of that period, be it July of 08 or Q1 09 is irrelevant. He acknowledges that it happened. The rest of this is elaborate hand waving. Vox here is suggesting that the fact that the federal government is spending the new money, and that it somehow doesn’t count as inflation. I am beginning to see the problem here. Vox has literally just said, “Yeah but it doesn’t matter because its government spending.” If we were arguing about the health of an economy… yes… we could certainly point to the distinction and say, “Its not real growth.” But we’re not debating that. We’re debating inflation vs deflation. Inflation is never real growth. That’s the point. Of course its government spending. Unless Vox wants to claim that inflation isn’t possible in a communist regime, then he must acknowledge for the purposes of this debate, the sector the increase is happening in doesn’t matter. That just tells you who got to spend the money that was stolen from you.
Read the rest at his place. My response, as usual, will be within one week. At this point, all I will say is that in addition to the economics, the astute reader may also detect an aspect of the socio-sexual hierarchy in action. I must certainly confess to an amount of wry appreciation for the irrational confidence of the alpha.