ght for the Day: Milton (Monetary), Paradise Lost // (Steven Hayward).
Let’s remember Milton Friedman’s thoughts on inflation since it’s Fed Day.
Inflation is a monetary phenomenon that occurs all the time. It is always and everywhere a result of too many dollars, or a faster increase in money output than in money quantity. In the modern age, it is important to realize that governments control the amount of money. Inflation in the United States is therefore controlled by Washington.
People in Washington will tell you that it is caused by greedy businessmen, grasping unions, spendthrift customers, or even those horrible Arab Sheikhs. Businessmen are greedy, it’s no surprise. Who among us isn’t greedy? Trade unions are grasping. Who among us isn’t? There is no doubt that the consumer spends a lot. Almost every man knows this about his wife.
None of them can produce inflation, for the simple reason that neither a businessman nor a trade union member nor a housewife have a printing press in their basement where they can make those green pieces of money we call money.
