I see, so you want better precision in our language. I think maybe we are just speaking a different language, but the goal is still something I should consider. Federal deficit expansion has a met inflationary effect long term, because it pumps dollars into the system and those dollars have to come from somewhere, and they're basically being issued as federal debt, which is bought up by global investors or the Fed. When the investors don't feel it's attractive enough for the Fed's liking, the Fed will print and the money supply will increase. Until then it's a localized expansion of available dollars (an increase in supply, an inflation-like event) in the U.S., especially close to government contracts and whatnot, at the expense of dollars elsewhere. Not actually inflation of the money supply, but it tends toward more future expansion of the money supply, because the government is not incentivized to own up to its mistakes. So what we're saying on a long enough time scale is true. If we say that the Fed specifically is printing right now, well yeah that's false (aside from a little bit a few days ago there)
Yeah, I don't think we can really call fiscal expansion inflation at all if we are defining inflation as an expansion of the money supply, unless we call the debt instruments it uses money itself. Although, that debt could be thought of as a form of credit, so it could be considered (I think) an expansion of credit which drives production toward what the receiver of these funds (government) wants, pretty much immediately, and if this represents poor allocation of resources, it makes everyone worse off even though it was not technically monetary inflation. Keynesians like to pretend that the government either always or usually knows better than individuals, and their prescriptions, which bolster the current monetary order's perceived legitimacy and beneficence, rely entirely on that flimsy snuck premise. Add to this that there is precious little effective feedback to the government regarding its expenses and how to allocate them, and you can almost guarantee that every government program is a misuse of funds vs what the private market would do, and thus lowers living standards and dollar purchasing power by that opportunity cost. That does not mean that every single thing government officials or politicians do will be that bad of a misuse, Thomas Massie exists. But he is not the norm.
I have much more to learn as regards money, but yeah you and I are pretty much on the same page on this matter. Cheers!
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