** 11-Feb-2021 World View: The Inflationarian Prophets
This morning I heard a financial analyst explain why this time it's
different from the year 2000 stock market bubble. Je said that in
2000, none of the companies in the bubble had any earnings. But
today, all the companies are "crushing" earnings predictions, and
therefore the stock market will continue to go up for at least another
year or two.
He said that there's only one thing that worries him: Inflation. So
he's an active, praying member of the Inflationarian Church.
The Inflationarianists talk endlessly about the examples of the Weimar
Republic and Zimbabwe in the same way that people in other religions
refer to previous miracles. It's these miracles that supposedly prove
the Inflationarianist beliefs.
Now the Prophets of the Inflationatarian Church are predicting that
sending out $2,000 checks to all Americans will cause inflation.
John Lonsky, chief economist at Moody's, was on Varney on Wednesday
and said the following (my transcription):
> "It's gonna provide some support, but I wanna go back
> to what happened in 2020 when we had a similar infusion of cash
> from the federal government. In 2020 despite this great infusion
> of cash to people, those one time payments, consumer spending
> still fell by $400 billion. What went up is personal savings.
> This is incredible. Last year, personal savings rose I believe by
> about $1.5 trilion. We ended up with the highest personal savings
> rate on record.
> So I would think that these forthcoming checks, if they do
> anything, they would just add to personal savings over the near
> term. And that's mostly because people realize that this extra
> cash they're getting is not a recurring phenomenon. It's a
> one-time occurrence, and the tendency is to save.
> John Lonsky, chief economist with Moody's, 14:55"
So Lonsky is apparently not an Inflationatarian, and presumably neither
is Moody's as a whole.
The Inflationatarian Prophets and High Priests are one-trick ponies,
and usually reason in only one way -- if lots of money is being
"printed," then (hyper)inflation will follow.
But Lonsky's interview describes one of many reasons why this isn't true.
You can't just assume that any "printed" money will go into inflation.
As Lonsky shows, that "printed" money could go into savings accounts,
where it will have no effect on inflation.
For "printed" money to have an effect on inflation, it has to be used
to buy retail goods, then turned around to buy wholesale goods, then
turned around to pay wages. That's an example where the money is
turned around 3 times, which corresponds to a velocity of money value
of 3. That's why the velocity of money is correlated to inflation.
If "printed" money goes into circulation, then the velocity of
money goes up, and inflation goes up. If "printed" money goes into
savings, then it sits in a savings account, and has no effect on
inflation.
An interesting question is why there was so much inflation in the 1970s,
but no inflation today. The answer has to do with debt. In the 1970s,
people were not in debt, so they spent money on products and wages.
But today, everyone is deeply in debt, and they use any money they
get to pay off debt. And paying off debt is the same as "saving" money,
so it doesn't contribute to the velocity of money.
The monetary motive to be in the Inflationitarian Church is that
hyperinflation would wipe out debts. However, it's those debts that
make hyperinflation impossible today. And that's very bad news to the
Inflationarianists.