Ed Huntress wrote:

On Sat, 17 Mar 2012 20:57:26 -0500, jim "sjedgingN0Sp"@m@mwt,net
wrote:



Scout wrote:


Some Australians DO predict massive, even hyper, inflation.

You said and I quote "Even the Austrians can't fly to that level of
delusion..."

Go ahead take a stab at proving they are as crazy as you are

Read Ron Paul's book _Pillars of Prosperity_, to see the Austrian
School prediction of hyperinflation:

http://mises.org/books/prosperity.pdf

"Price inflation, although difficult to predict on a month-to-month
or even year-to-year basis, will reach unbelievable heights in
this decade."

He wrote that in 1984. Then he predicted in the same speech that we
would be at war with our major trading partners (Canada? Japan?) in
the 1990s.

Keep in mind Ron Paul is doctor not an economist.
Price inflation was high in the 80's.
Much higher than most of the 50's and 60's when
prices increased by about 1% or less per year. What Paul
failed to predict was that people would get used
to high inflation.

Prices have steadily climbed up at this "new normal" until
the end of 2008 when the first significant downward
movement since the great depression occurred.
Today prices are still below the pre-2008 trend.

But ordinary inflation wasn't the issue being discussed.
The question was "is deflation more likely than hyper-inflation"

The Austrians correctly view inflation as a product of the
money supply created almost entirely by private sector borrowing.
And since they recognize private borrowing is practically
nonexistent today and not likely to return any time soon, the
Austrians don't see hyper-inflation as a real threat in near term.
In their view the state has its hands full now keeping ordinary
inflation alive.