I can sorta see perhaps why the gov’t wants an average slightly above zer0 in addition to why a gov’t deeply in debt likes hidden taxation.
That would be that as there is natural variability in the inflation rate, going below zer0 might send the economy to a place not desired by the majority of the oligarchy.
Having to develop financial strategeries that can weather both deflation and inflation could be more complex and problematic.
“Having to develop financial strategeries that can weather both deflation and inflation could be more complex and problematic.”
Ludwig Von Mises wrote about this topic at length—and proved it was absolutely impossible for central planners to achieve this.
The problem is not just creating a model good enough to model economies—it is that humans (what von Mises called “Human Action”) is a highly complex mix of both rational and irrational decisions. There is no way to create a computer model to accurately deal with that.
The other issue with “mixed economies” is that humans will work the system or work around the system in an infinite numbers of ways—most of which will never be understood by pushing around statistics.
Example—how can you budget for Medicaid and Medicare when many thousands of actors out there are figuring out new ways to steal from the programs?