What is money?Money is the time-value of your work. It’s the container into which you place your labor, talent and production.
In order to function effectively, money must have a few certain qualities.
Money has to be an easy medium of exchange. This is why barter doesn’t work very well. If the baker wants to buy a suit, yet the tailor is on a diet, they won’t be able to trade services.
Money also must be a unit of account that is portable, durable, and divisible. Shells, salt, beads, livestock, and large stones have all been used as currency throughout history. However, each has its drawbacks.
Paper US Dollars solve all these problems but one. Sound money must be a store of value. This is the most important attribute of lasting money and a stable economy. Sadly, our US Dollar has lost 98% of its purchasing power.
In fact, the entire history of paper money has been one of disaster and ruin. The reason why paper money has always failed is because of inflation.
What is inflation?Most people (and most textbooks) define inflation as a general increase in consumer prices. This is incorrect. Inflation is defined as an increase in the money supply. The instant the Federal Reserve creates more dollar bills, they’ve created inflation.
“The most important thing to remember is that inflation is not an act of God, that inflation is not a catastrophe of the elements or a disease that comes like the plague. Inflation is a policy.”
- Ludwig von Mises, “Economic Policy”
Inflation is a policy. It’s the purposeful and malicious devaluing of the US dollar. The resulting general rise in consumer prices is merely a symptom of inflation. It’s the consequence of inflating the money supply.
“Inflation is theft, you’re stealing value from people who save money. So if you have a two percent or ten percent, the value of the currency is lost. And it really destroys an important feature of the economy, and that is savings.”
– Ron Paul
