tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post6657185286497792676..comments2024-02-06T22:19:13.028-08:00Comments on Mining Aśvaghoṣa's Gold: BUDDHACARITA 13.6: Māra's Window of OpportunityMike Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-21726103569568830102014-12-10T09:44:25.331-08:002014-12-10T09:44:25.331-08:00How else but by inflation can the debt burden be r...How else but by inflation can the debt burden be relieved in a democracy? <br /><br />Who's going to vote for another way --like increased taxes and lower government spending? <br /><br />I think many of us in the US and the UK (not to mention places like Greece, where the books have been cooked on an epic scale) have been living way beyond our means for years. Sending you all the way to Iraq might have been part of that overspend. Or maybe -- by protecting the petrodollar -- it was part of the solution, temporarily. <br /><br />Debt being already where it is, relative to GDP, inflation is the only way forward. That's why the central banks are hell bent on generating it -- not least at the cutting edge of the cutting edge of credit creation, in Japan. <br /><br />But the irony seems to be that so far they can't generate inflation at the desired level. All they create is distortions in the market, misallocation of resources, and excessive inflation in the price of certain financial assets, mainly equities and bonds. <br /><br />Without the kind of inflation that causes nominal GDP to grow, the debt burden goes on getting heavier. Chances of our governments meeting their unfunded liabilities (your marine pension, my state pension) grow ever more remote. <br /><br />On the bright side, if and when the whole thing goes tits up, the Buddha's teaching of having small desire and being content, might come into its own. <br /><br /><br /><br />Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-2083272030345258662014-12-10T07:15:18.326-08:002014-12-10T07:15:18.326-08:00So, destroying the middle class via the hidden tax...So, destroying the middle class via the hidden tax of inflation is all part of the plan.SlowZenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589294912054724123noreply@blogger.com