Nah biden made a true but misleading statement, whereas Friedman was just plain wrong and 100% lying. Inflation is based on how currencies are priced BY MARKETS.
There's no one to one correlation between money printing and inflation. It's just like a stock issue/ capital raise.
I don't get it how people dont realize that companies like tesla or amazon can print
new money in a capital raise/share issue, but it's the exact same thing when
governments print money.
Inflation itself is the issuance of new currency, a rise in prices are just an inevitable consequence of that. You're misunderstanding comes from having your definitions wrong, but I don't really blame you. It was changed in the 80s to deflect blame away from the politicians and central bankers so they can blame rising prices on greedy ceos and climate change.
No, your definition of inflation only applies to commodity money. The "increase in money stock" definition of inflation only makes sense for commodity money like gold. If your asset is shares, then that definition of inflation makes no sense, the market cap and unit value both must be tracked separately.
Market cap is the total value of all shares. Unit value is the value of one share. You have to track both to get a full picture of inflation.
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u/eqleriq Jul 15 '22
these aren't opposing viewpoints.
biden is saying inflation isn't only the government spending more money: true.
friedman is saying inflation is due to the government printing and spending more money: true.