Yeah, that’s a winning strategy, especially since Obama added $1.4 trillion this year and more trillions in the years to come.

I’ll just keep repeating this: Where were you when Bush was running up the deficit? Running up the deficit now is a necessary evil to bring back the economy and it’s worked. Jobs come back as businesses stabilize and start making money to pay workers.

I am learning that deficits are not a problem if they are done needlessly in a time of growth. And, health reforms are okay if it costs more than Obama’s, and is 100% added to the deficit. These things are okay because over 40 Republicans Senators vote for them, not because they add to the deficit.

So, if a strong Republican Congress passes tax cuts in time of growth and passes health reform, but throws both on to the deficit –> that’s a good thing and deserve my full support. But, if a weak Democratic Congress passes a needed stimulus and passes health reform that will reduce the deficit: we got to plan a tea party and take our country back!

For some reason it just seems like a bad idea to devalue my money. And since I actually have savings and funds saved for retirement, (I’m responsible for my own well-being, unlike all those who voted in Obama for more free handouts) I don’t want those savings to lose all their value. Yes! Let’s have 15% inflation – that way my money isn’t worth as much, I can’t buy as much, I can’t save as much, anything I have saved is worthless, etc., etc. All so it’s “easier” to pay off the national debt. Yeah, that’s a winning strategy, especially since Obama added $1.4 trillion this year and more trillions in the years to come. We haven’t payed down the debt in years, and you’re criticizing Katie for wanting to think about inflation before it happens?….Maybe we should actually start paying off the debt before we start rejoicing about how having high inflation is going to help pay it off….

Problem is, things we do today to “fix” the jobs situation (let’s presume for a moment that Keynesianism creates jobs, which so far in The One’s administration doesn’t seem to be the case), will lead, as “unintended” consequences, to inflation down the road. This is especially bad if the intervention doesn’t solve unemployment, but does trigger inflation. This was what life was like throughout the Carter years. I don’t really wanna go back to that.

I mean, if I as a “common folk” am allowed to say so.

So we should run our monetary policy based on the common folk’s irrational fears?

Thing is (although your writing is rocking these days) this inflation stuff is non-sense. Why can’t the Fed worry about inflation when it becomes a problem? Right now, it is most definitely not a problem. There’s a great article about that here. Why place the “possible threat” of inflation over our present needs for jobs and paying down the debt?

Truth is, inflation’s been falling. It’s so low that some regional Fed Reserve economists are hoping for more inflation. More! That’s because it helps jobs and helps us pay off debt (of which we got tons). Other non-partisan economists are hoping for this too. It’s not so crazy right now. Inflation’s a big deal, but the US has got more-pressing problems at the moment.