I had this on my blog, I just want to make sure it is correct. I am new to the Austrian school, former Keynesian.
“Since we got off the gold standard, the Federal reserve can print all the money it wishes for the spendthrift politician. Because of endless spending, the government inflates the money supply and we get this thing called the inflation tax. Inflation lowers the value of your dollar making it worth less. In Jan/07 the inflation rate was 2% and it has risen to over 4% in November. To keep it simple, I will stick with 2% for the whole year of 07 and over the last decade it has been around 2% or more.Say in 1997 you put $1 in the bank and there was a steady inflation rate of 2% for a decade. by 2007 that $1 will have a purchasing power of 80 cents. To get a good perspective in 1997, you put $1,500 in the bank for 10 years and there is a steady 2% inflation rate. In 2007, the purchasing power of that $1,500 will be $1,200. It sounds bad but in the future it gets worse. We are $9 trillion in debt and by 2040 the whole federal budget will be crushed by medicare and social security alone. The government is going broke and has to pay out massive entitlement benefits down the road and the only way to pay for all of it is to print $$$$.”