Acommmenter on Seeking Alpha Debunked this article here it is as follows:<p>David Haggith<p>The article is a total fail.
The fact that the author has "gold" in his name is telling. It's an attempt to sell gold. He's talking his book.
Almost the entire article that claims in its title we already have hyperinflation is really an article about hyperinflation in money supply. We all know we have had that to the tune of trillions of dollars for an entire decade. The author's claim is that, since we have hyperinflation in money supply, it is almost a foregone conclusion we have it in prices (dollar-value loss). It's an article that essentially says, "It is theoretically supposed to happen; therefore, it is happening."
The author, however, does almost nothing to justify any claim of devaluation of money or inflation of prices. We've seen stocks inflate and bond prices, and now we are seeing housing prices inflate. All are assets so not exactly cost-of living, except with housing it becomes both-- a rise in the price of a highly valued asset that is also essential for living.
He mentions some obscure inflation index most of us have probably never heard of as if we should accept it at face value. It's almost irrelevant anyway. Outside of housing, you can quote any inflation gauge you want, and it doesn't matter. Each of us can look to our own lives and say, "How bad is inflation hurting me? Is it worse than any other time in my life." Outside of housing, I do NOT experience that price inflation (dollar value deflation) is hurting me any differently than it has for most of my life. It is nothing compared what I felt during the Nixon years; and even that was far from hyperinflation.
So far.
So, the article is almost click-bait because it does not prove or even present much realistic evidence for the kind of inflation it is talking about that erodes our standard of living -- price inflation / dollar-value deflation. Inflation is always a loss for all of us, so I'd rather not ever have inflation; still, it is so far still percolating along as usual, except in housing right now. (edited)
Hyperinflation requires a feedback loop through workers, and I see no evidence that most US workers have enough bargaining power to demand higher wages to match. I expect further asset inflation and a continued “k” shaped divergence.
The article makes a great point that velocity of money is a magic fudge factor to make two unbalanced things match up.<p>However, the huge flaw in using the Chapwood Index is that it claims the US economy is shrinking when the official stats say it is growing. Feel how you may, that is an extraordinary claim and requires stronger evidence than "I have a really professional website" and "it makes sense to me".<p>I personally think the idea that the M2 growth we're seeing is OK is absurd and I've been very happy with my gold holdings. If it isn't doing a great deal of damage, empires would have been using this tactic to great effect for centuries. But nobody has come up with a watertight case linking monetary recklessness to anything, so it really is still a personal judgement call.
Be on the watch for the people always warning this and selling gold. The true cause for hyperinflation is where the government resorts to seigniorage as taxes and bonds fail to raise money. We haven't seen it at least openly.
Inflation can be desirable and there is not much robust evidence that we have even low level inflation yet. Without strong inflation it will be extremely difficult to deal with the consequences of superheated global commodity markets. Those boomer McMansions are not worth a million plus each, period, so we have to turn the dial down one way or another. Debasing the currency is a terrible way of going about that, but appears to be what we as a society have decided upon.