Two powerful and diametrically opposed forces are shaping the economy.
On the one hand is inflationary economic policy, which keeps the price of assets like real estate and stocks rising ever higher, but at the expense of savings as the value of currency depreciates.
On the other is technology-wrought deflation. As technology increases its capacity exponentially, it causes everything it touches to be less expensive.
Jeff Booth is the author of “The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future.” In this conversation, he and NLW discuss:
- How today’s system came to be designed
- Why policy makers are terrified of deflation
- Why inflationary policy punishes savers and forces them into riskier markets
- How policy that prioritizes asset holders over savers has significantly exacerbated inequality
- Why each dollar of debt is producing less real economic growth than ever before
- Why proposed “solutions” like MMT and UBI paper over the root causes of the problem
