Yeah the comment that inflation is, "widely reviled as a kind of tax on modern life," struck me.
Inflation is a tax on savings, and if anything, "saving" is not an aspect of "modern" life.
I have a standing theory, a paradigm really. Governments, especially democratically elected governments have a voracious need to spend. They begin by financing their spending by direct taxation. Taxation is a tax on present income. They tax everything they can, and push those taxes to the limit. When they run out of taxation (politically), they proceed to tax the future by borrowing money. When they borrow so much that they can borrow no more, they proceed to tax the past through inflation. Inflation is a tax on money that you earned in past and had socked away. Inflation is the last option (short of out and out confiscation of property) that governments have to feed their spending addiction. After that, collapse.
It’s another way to redistribute wealth from the middle class. They’re not likely to have the kind of shelters for their wealth like the rich have. They might have savings accounts in dollars. So inflation makes their wealth go down while the poor don’t lose anything. It leads us to greater income equality on the backs of the middle class, perfectly consistent with all of Obama’s policies.
Inflation benefits profligate borrowers...like the US Government.