Customer Reviews

What You Should Know About Inflation

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We have inflation again, the result of the Federal Reserve Board increasing the value of gold from the $350/ounce average from 1981 to 2001 -- to around $950 in mid-2009, as I write. That's about 200% inflation, which we see in the tripling of oil and gas prices -- and will soon see in the tripling of the price of everything else. (The recession has only retarded inflation in these areas, not ended it.)

Hazlitt, whom H.L. Mencken once called one of the few economists who could write clearly, wrote this little book in the late 1960s, as the inflationary spiral of the mid-1960s to 1981 was just beginning. It's a little gem and an excellent companion to his classic, "Economics in One Lesson."

It isn't really dated at all, as the same economic errors are repeated throughout history. Like Ron Paul today, Hazlitt insists that the only way to prevent inflation is to return to the gold standard. He writes:

"Nothing has more clearly demonstrated the need for the gold standard than its abandonment. Since that occurred, in Britain in 1931 and in the United States in 1933, the world has been plunged, both in wartime and in peacetime, into a sea of paper money and unending inflation."

Sound familiar? 1968 = 2009

What a brillant book ! Hazlitt does a great job of explaining how inflation is developed. An increase in the supply of money and credit and the expectations of it continuing is what inflation is all about. What is incredibly scary is the this book was written in 1960.. what would Hazlitt think about today's Federal Reserve decisions? The book does a wonderful job of explaining inflation and also a great case (again) for the gold standard. One thing he does write and I don't agree is that inflation "redistributes" wealth.. HUH? Inflation hits the poor harder than the rich. So many great concepts about the economy, this book is a very good use of your time.

Hazlitt's writing is always crisp and informative. He adds to the Case Against the FED.