Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Where's the Inflation?

I keep reading about economists predicting out of control inflation in the US.  They've been predicting it for 4-5 years now.  Mathematically, they have reason for concern.  To stem the bleeding of the 2008 financial collapse, the US government "printed" enormous sums of money.  Ordinarily, that would result in out of control inflation. Except it is now 6 years later and it still hasn't happened.  Why?  The government didn't actually print anything.  They made a few computer keystrokes and created and transferred money that didn't exist before .  They did this to balance the books of over-leveraged under-capitalized companies.  This new money never actually went into circulation.  As of yet, it hasn't touched the hands of the average American.  Instead, it went into the coffers of corporations and the fantastically wealthy.  For them (the 1% folks), it didn't really change anything.  When you have a net worth of Billions of dollars, a few hundred million here and there doesn't really change anything.  They weren't forced to sell a home, or a fleet of expensive cars.  That money was fictitious for all intents and purposes.  Eventually, that money will leak into the public stream and it will cause problems though.  Until then, the poor are still poor, the rich are richer, and everyone in between is still in between.