[Alberta's Child]

A lot of folks have a fundamental misunderstanding of what is happening here. Forget about inflation. The whole purpose of this massive flood of new money in circulation is to defend the U.S. dollar against crippling DEFLATION.

[cgbg]

The whole purpose of this massive flood of new money in circulation is to defend the U.S. dollar against crippling DEFLATION.

Agree.

This is hard for folks to understand because the economy has not had actual deflation since the 1930s.

Deflation is when people cannot afford to buy stuff. When they can't afford to buy stuff they stop buying it.

In the modern age that means they no longer borrow money (or their credit card company or bank will refuse to lend it to them). It also means that folks who can afford to buy stuff are tightening their belts and refusing to spend.

At the end of the day, government cannot force people to spend discretionary income.

The best approach in a deflationary environment is to get the printed money in the hands of people who must spend it for necessities, like food, utilities, rents or mortgages, etc.

That is why the direct payment was actually the best of the coronavirus approaches--unemployment benefits are very "clunky" due to state bureaucracies, fraud potential, negative impact on many workers who will choose free time off rather than work, etc.

[Jim W N]

Inflation is one of the biggest economic problems we’ve had since around 1900 when the feds began to decide they weren’t restrained by the Constitution anymore.

And, yes, many have “forgotten” about inflation and are clueless that the unrestrained growth of government spending and size causes this relentless hidden tax of inflation.

[PrairieLady2]

My state taxes everything including food. Thanks to the stimulus, i paid a couple of hundred dollars in taxes than I would otherwise have spent. And, I was able to acquire some very needed things to make my life more tolerable, like a freaking bed.