“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output...” —Milton Friedman
“Inflation is taxation without legislation.” —Milton Friedman
Prices Have Been Increasing for Two Years
The Great Financial Recession was met with furious monetary and fiscal stimulus to blunt its impact. Likewise, the pandemic brought more of the same, and all of this had in common a four-letter word: debt. Flooding the economy with liquidity resulted finally in inflation that crept close to double digits before slowly coming down to around 3 percent today. In fact, the U.S. central bank is proud to announce it has essentially “licked” inflation.
