Keynes on the Ravages of Inflation
By Robert Higgs on Apr 20, 2008 in Budget and Tax Policy, Economics, Property Rights, War
John Maynard Keynes was a member of the British delegation to the peace negotiations at Versailles after World War I. He was disgusted by the Allies’ vindictive, grasping, and short-sighted actions at the conference, and he dashed off a book to denounce those actions and to explain why he thought the treaty would give rise to a plethora of troubles, as indeed it did. His book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), is still well worth reading today for its vivid character sketches, its recitation of key facts, and its penetrating political and economic insights.
Along the way, Keynes digressed to discuss why the European governments’ inflation of their money stocks during and after the war portended grave consequences. Although Keynes is not ordinarily cited as a strong anti-inflationist—indeed in important ways, his later views helped to create a well-nigh inevitably inflationary system of government macroeconomic interventionism—I know of no stronger statement against inflation than the one he expressed on pp. 235-36 of his book. It reads as follows:
Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts and even beyond their expectations or desires, become ‘profiteers,’ who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less than of the proletariat. As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.
Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
We hope a comet the size of Manhattan hits planet earth so we can all start anew.
The current global system is so out of whack that equality is futile.
The global economy needs a Global Economic Meltdown.
Thanks for listening, and good luck!
Donald Engen
Needles CA
Donald Engen | Apr 20, 2008 | Reply
Applied Law Magnetics – Sample
Date: 04-25-08
Re: Visa/MasterCard ($220 plus million dollar pay day)
Greetings Mr. Constantine & Partners:
As a follow up to our consulting application, we noticed this court filing of yours:
’03 ’04 ‘05
Gordon Schnell $320 $425 $450
Jeffrey Shinder $320 $425 $450
Stacey A. Mahoney $295 $400 $420
Mathew L. Cantor $295 $400 $420
Now, you verified under oath to the court that these numbers were faithfully set, as a private A.G. contractor. A $105 per hour sticker price lift ($320 to $425) is pretty big bump for working on a settled case Mr. Constantine. You didn’t disclose to the court anything about the isolated cost of doing business elements, skill elements or any other solitary mark explaining how you independently added & arrived at those four enormous sticker price per hour lifts – in a single big block move. And I didn’t note that you explained that to your clients either.
Next, I noticed some other of your staff that you bumped $50 to $75 per unit per hour. That $105 lift (ceiling) sure makes the less than & $50 to $75 per person unit per hour lift creates a false impression that these jumps are “reasonably arrived at” and not “artificial.” And I noticed that you set your 2005 price for a “summer associate/law clerk” at $250 (Efrat Shapira). I know some partners in Complex Lit firms set their hourly price at $250, but I’ve never heard of that before. Was that a Type O or something that the court mistakenly paid?
Next, I noticed in footnote 2 on your price schedule page that you correctly observed that Mr. Shaman served two separate & distinct roles, which explained the difference between his $150 & $175/$275 price tags per hour. Did you distinguish what “roles” (administrative v. legal, e.g.) that each of the units you sold to the court & the corresponding price to be paid for each like you did with Mr. Shaman. Or did you calculate to insert that little bit for some other reason?
Next, part of our possible consulting services, if this issue was presented under a key tam statute as either a civil action every penny lift might be owed back times three. Moreover, it could be raised as a Section 2 criminal case (You having a 100% of the defined case market – government granted), which triggers fines/penalties exposure on top it, like the Weiss thing.
Sincerely,
Gary | May 1, 2008 | Reply
Law Cosmetics – Sample – Applied:
To begin, this short presentation keys on the fact of perfect price alignment coordinated by Top Brand Name Niche Esquire, which regular retail prices are talked about & agreed upon & maintained for a constant one or more year periods before being lifted, in concert, again.
Brand Name Firm Regular Retail
Sticker Prices Are Wholly Rigged Up
G. Saveri F. Scarpulla J.M. Alioto Joseph Cooper
$650 $650 $650 $650
How these prices are inflated & aligned, in concert, I tell you exactly, owing to these facts, e.g.:
A) I was present, on speaker phone, during the Rival Complex Lit Esquires “talks/meetings” about prices – for court application purposes;’
B) The ceiling measure is, aka/verbatim, “what we think the court might pay us without looking to greedy.”
Second, We, price right or price wrong pros, employed exactly the same cartel “scheduled price list” protocol on all fours with Sugar, 297 U.S. 553, 603, (1936), like chains, verbatim:
A. Our … scheduled strategies are made with & based on core rivals [not costs]…. They are developed at very high levels & include all [level prices] … within specific [Esq.] categories. All item lines within all categories are included.
Third, the identifying mark of a price fixing agreement is marked by perfect price parallelism, as illustrated, by declaration in the Cosmetics case price fixing files. A synonym for “parallel” pricing is the word “match” or “narrow ambit” rival pricing, as articulated in Container, 393 U.S. 333 (1969). Container is a criminal, not a civil, conspiracy case, which expressly forbids “match” or “narrow ambit” off a rival pricing in lieu of correct, isolated or independent price protocol, a Tri-Angled one pager 3 part view of which is attached:
A) Ex A (3 one pagers) – Niche Esquire Price Lists Are A-Z in concert.
Fourth, to be clear, this presentation is about THE MARKET MAKERS (Of Class Actions), i.e., the very top & lead Complex Lit Esquires – The Price Rig Mechanic Pros! See attached “CD” Verified Facts & Supremely Simple Rules – The Niche Field Coveted Keys!
Gary | May 1, 2008 | Reply
The Complex Lit Hourly Price Rig, A Sample:
First, again, to be clear, this presentation is about THE MARKET MAKERS (Of Class Actions), i.e., the very top & lead Complex Lit Esquires in & out of court practices, viewed in light of the very “price right or price wrong” laws they say they enforce:
The Very Tops Upped Pricing Lists
Paves The Way For All Under To Up Theirs
Second, with regard to the very top roof price list, set by the very top Complex lit price leaders, which rivals talked about and agreed to up to $900 per hour, this cartel truism, as stated by the esteemed Dr. Ken Elzinga citing Adam Smith, verbatim, is instructive:
A. “People of the same [Complex lit securities & Antitrust] trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise [hourly] prices.”
A. Yes. One of the most famous quotes in economics.
A. Basically would be that, again, lowering all the prices, the [Sugar schedule members] … would [have to] … follow us [down] at some point in time.
A. By follow, I mean they would [spot] … that we lowered our prices in our stores, because we all take … checks of each other.
Third, about the fact that the entire class lit field pricing field operates wholly free from any “competitive” price forces, owing to the fact that correct price protocol is not employed by the tops, this quote from a Petroleum (KY) case is instructive:
• “…they charge…whatever they feel…in light of prices charged by competing [primary law firm] stations.”
A. It’s no different than if you are trying to put a meeting together at work; it’s a lot easier to put a meeting together at work if you have to get three people together than if you have to get ten people together.
Gary | May 1, 2008 | Reply