How To Cure Inflation
“Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore.”
That’s what then-candidate Biden told Politico in April 2020.
He was advocating for a spending bill a “hell of a lot bigger” than the $2 trillion CARES Act.
For once he was surprisingly right.
The late Milton Friedman isn’t running anything anymore.
The principles he espoused certainly are though.
We’re all living through them now.
That’s why we’ve excerpted part of his Free To Choose book and video series about How To Cure Inflation.
The full video is linked here: Episode 9: How To Cure Inflation.
Here’s the part that’s particularly relevant and what it will take to cure inflation today:
Inflation is the most destructive disease to modern societies.
There is nothing which will destroy society so thoroughly and so fully as letting inflation run riot.
Inflation doesn’t arise because you’ve got consumers who are spendthrift. They’ve always been spendthrift.
It doesn’t arise because you’ve got businessmen who are greedy. They’ve always been greedy.
Inflation arises because we as citizens have been asking you as politicians to perform an impossible task.
We’ve been asking you to spend someone else’s money on us, but not to spend our money on anybody else.
Everybody talks against inflation, but what he means is that he wants the prices of the things he sells to go up, and the prices of the things he buys to go down.
The real tax on the American people is not what you label taxes, it’s total spending.
If Congress spends $50 billion more than it takes in, if the government spends $50 billion, who do you suppose pays that $50 billion?
The Arab Sheiks aren’t paying it.
Santa Claus isn’t paying it.
The Tooth Fairy isn’t paying it.
You and I are paying for it indirectly through hidden taxation.
There is nothing which will destroy society so thoroughly and so fully as letting inflation run riot.
Inflation doesn’t arise because you’ve got consumers who are spendthrift. They’ve always been spendthrift.
It doesn’t arise because you’ve got businessmen who are greedy. They’ve always been greedy.
Inflation arises because we as citizens have been asking you as politicians to perform an impossible task.
We’ve been asking you to spend someone else’s money on us, but not to spend our money on anybody else.
Everybody talks against inflation, but what he means is that he wants the prices of the things he sells to go up, and the prices of the things he buys to go down.
The real tax on the American people is not what you label taxes, it’s total spending.
If Congress spends $50 billion more than it takes in, if the government spends $50 billion, who do you suppose pays that $50 billion?
The Arab Sheiks aren’t paying it.
Santa Claus isn’t paying it.
The Tooth Fairy isn’t paying it.
You and I are paying for it indirectly through hidden taxation.
Will the public muster the resolve to truly cure inflation?
We’ll probably have a good idea in a few weeks.
