Stimulus Tax

Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
--The Beatles

The other day, Juan Williams waxed poetic about the economic stimulus enacted under the Obama administration. He failed to consider the effect of the $trillions of money/credit created by the Fed and other central banks worldwide.

Stated differently, he does not account for inflation. Since 2009, base money (above) has more than tripled. This is inflation as classically defined: expansion of the supply of money/credit above the pace of productivity improvement.

Lew Rockwell astutely notes that inflation is a tax. This tax is typically 'invisible' to Everyman because value degrades slowly; it does not get taken out of each paycheck like withholding to the IRS.

Lew also observes that the current inflation remains largely trapped in our financial system. If/when that money leaks into peoples' wallets, then prices of goods and services (the popular metric of inflation today) will surely surge.

Make no mistake, the 'tax cuts' that Juan Williams touts as part of the 'successful' Obama stimulus have been more than offset by the $trillions in purchasing power lost by the govt printing press.