Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The difference between inflation and hyperinflation is important because the former can go on indefinitely, though inconveniently, while the latter indicates the end of an economy. Hyperinflation is accelerating inflation. There’s also the smokescreen that the government uses to cover for inflation: for the past couple of decades, they show that the inflation rate has hovered around 2%, which it has for the things most people think of as everyday purchases. However, stocks have inflated tremendously because borrowing money was so cheap, but most people aren’t affected by the stock market. Big ticket items like houses & cars, have also been inflating at the same rate; now they're so expensive that people with normal incomes can't afford them. Wage inflation is required to catch up, combined with high interest rates. There are differing narratives of what causes inflation but the simplest is when there’s so much imaginary money, almost $400 trillion, but only $100 trillion of real things to buy. It’s not just a 4:1 ratio because most people who have something real aren’t going to exchange it for something imaginary, so all that money chases the few things that are for sale, resulting in hyperinflation. It still has to be triggered to start people, companies & countries into panic-buying, and in that respect, the world’s economy, America’s specifically, has been remarkably resilient against hyperinflation, so-much-so that even Lockdowns didn’t trigger it. Perhaps the war in Ukraine will be the catalyst, or the next thing that comes along, but when hyperinflation is the only solution, it eventually will be the solution.