Gavin Wax: Any Inflation Control Will Be Transitory As Long As Inflationists Are in Control

Don’t listen to the Fed. Inflation is made by inflationists and cannot be unmade by them. The only hope for beating inflation now is for Americans to become “deflationists” themselves and choose sound money while they still can.

The politically correct opinion approved for all cocktail parties in Washington, DC is that inflation must be kept under control by powerful monetary manipulators. But the thought of deflation is so dreadfully offensive that it’s never uttered or only as a curse word.

The Federal Reserve and its lackeys in the media and academia couldn’t be more wrong about how money works, and while it’s encouraging that more Americans are now waking up to this, their time for taking decisive action is scarce.

The inflationists have bamboozled the public for far too long. But without mass complacency, the inflationary process that benefits the elites quickly crashes and burns.

None of this is complicated. The average American, heck, even the below-average American is perfectly capable of grasping the concepts of inflation and deflation.

Inflation and deflation have simple definitions. An increase in the money supply is inflation, and a decrease in the money supply is deflation. 

The question at hand is when will Americans suffer enough of the effects of inflation, namely higher prices, that they will seek out deflationary money.   

One would hope it won’t just be because gas hits $10 per gallon, but also due to the onslaught of insults from the media such as vilifying “self-indulgent” air-conditioning or cheering on less pay as “a good thing for workers.” 

Higher prices for goods and labor are the result of what’s been purposefully done for decades, the devaluation of the US dollar through inflation.

The reason for the establishment’s bias in favor of inflation is that it pays handsomely for those closest to the money printers. They spend or invest it before it ever loses its value. 

Inflation also creates a false sense of prosperity at first, enticing people to become borrowers. Deflation, on the other hand, benefits savers. Guess which type of mass person the monetary and social engineers prefer to rule over.

Therefore, deflation must be made into a bugaboo. And conveniently enough, inflationists get to play ghostbuster with a proton pack called printing money!

The fact is that deflation throughout the 19th century led to great prosperity in America, raising the standard of living unlike ever before. That was before the Federal Reserve, of course. Now, when we honestly look back on the inflationary 20th century, can we boast of the same rise in the standard of living?

It’s easy to see a difference between lifestyles in 1900 versus 1960, with wealth expanding in such forms as air conditioning, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, and automobiles. But what about from 1960 to 2020? Even with our smart phones and 5G internet, it still takes two income earners per household just to glean a chance at being debt free and retire in old age. This is even despite families starting later in life and the number of children shrinking too.

What gives anyone confidence about the standard of living not stagnating for future generations?

How can deflation return as long as inflationists are in charge of the US dollar, which lost its anchor to gold long ago and any attachment to reality following the spring of 2020? Indeed, under this debt-based system, classic deflation is impossible as the money printer may only ever be slowed or paused temporarily.

Thankfully, many Americans are pioneering the space of deflationary money. 

Gold has always had its place. Bullion sales hit records after the unprecedented expansion of the fiat money supply in 2020, and the commodity has fared well compared to stocks and bonds over the last year. 

There was also the “silver squeeze” movement in 2021 that followed a year in which a new generation was introduced to stacking both silver and gold. These hard assets that can be held privately and physically outside of the banking system are attractive for obvious reasons.

Bitcoin, however, remains an up and coming challenger to be crowned king of the deflationary assets.

Bloomberg Economics estimated last year that inflation fears may have driven around half of Bitcoin’s positive returns. That was up from just 20 percent in 2017. The Bitcoin protocol is hardwired to create only 21 million bitcoin, over 90 percent of which already exists, minus what’s been lost due to forgotten private keys, missing wallets, or deceased owners who didn’t share access to their stack.

Whether it’s gold, silver, bitcoin, or whatever combination, the inflationists are against them because they ultimately can’t control them.

That’s why, as research and development into Central Bank Digital Currency spreads worldwide, a cashless society is closer than ever before.

Americans with a healthy distrust of monetary authority must do their own research and thoughtfully decide how to acquire and hold deflationary money. The amount must be greater than zero.

It’s political campaign season, and the old line “it’s the economy, stupid” still rings true. But a better slogan might be “it’s the money, stupid.” No matter who gets into office in 2022 or in the White House in 2024, the political winds will not be strong in the direction of deflation.

Let us not forget that President Donald Trump made Jerome Powell chairman of the central bank and signed into law trillions of dollars of so-called Covid relief with nearly unanimous support from congressional Republicans.

The momentum toward a recession or worse is overwhelming. Cell phone bills aren’t being paid, and people love their phones. Lower income McDonald’s customers are moving down from combo meals to cheaper options on the menu. Layoffs are widely reported in the white collar industry. 

Things will never be so bad that the inflationists won’t fear-monger about deflation, though. Even as their fiat money turns worthless.

Politically, the most promising strategy is applied at the state level. Some states already don’t impose sales and capital gains taxes on gold and silver. When it comes to bitcoin and other cryptos, Wyoming is a leader in freeing up this space.

Currency competition is key to a true “soft landing,” something the inflationists are incapable of providing.

“The truth is inflation is made in one place and one place only, here in Washington,” Milton Friedman explained in Free to Choose.

Naturally, deflation will have to be made in many places by many people.

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