Inflation, What is it and How To Hide.

“A false balance is abomination to the LORD:  But a just weight is his delight”

Proverbs 11:1

We have a record of money almost from the beginning of creation some 6,000 years ago. Money, in the simplest of definitions, is a medium of exchange, and as far as history tells us the most successful and continually useful form of money was that form that was seen as a stable store of value in and of itself, in other words, it had intrinsic value. Gold, and Silver, and to some level Brass had value intrinsically within them, their respective weight together with a value placed upon that weight, was the measurement to which exchange was made.

In using Gold and Silver as money, other benefits also ensued; it could be divisible into smaller units, it could be fungible ensuring that the weight of one would have the same value of the weight of another, it is portable, durable, uniform, acceptable and it’s limited supply ensured a relatively constant value.

In the passage above, the Lord speaks of a just balance to measure money. Unlike today, money (Gold or Silver) was weighed in a balance. A just balance had a stable weight measured by the merchants; for example, an ounce of Gold on one side would balance an ounce of Gold on the other side and exchange can be made. But, there were times when deceitful men would employ “Diverse weights”, in other words, weights that would create a false balance deceiving the purchaser of any good.

“Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good”

Proverbs 20:23

Inflation creates a false balance, it essentially places a heavier and heavier weight on the scale for which the purchaser must continually increase his measure of money.

Though that is the practical outcome of how inflation works in a biblical context, it has done the work historically by lowering the value of the purchaser’s money. Private individuals were the first to mint coins to a set weight and the more reliable the weight and quality of the coin, the more they were trusted. But when governments began to mint coins, they had a very nasty habit of both gradually reducing the weight and lowering the quality by mixing metals.

Clipping coins was one way the Roman empire stole from the people, they clipped one small part around the coin and retained it for themselves. The ribbing we have around all our coins today is a historical remnant of how the people prevented such theft from occurring. 

Interestingly, our retention of the ‘color’ of gold and silver but replacing ALL the content of Gold or Silver with alloy, are the greatest evidence of our modern transition to an inflationary system of money, they are a deception of the most obvious and loathsome form from which few people recognized.

Fiat Currency

“There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

John Maynard Keynes

“Fiat” simply means ‘by decree’, or ‘let it be done, it is what determines the value of our money today through Legal Tender Laws. 

In 1971 Richard Nixon ‘closed the Gold window’, and from that time on the value of money was no longer held in place by anything of value. In short, our money is not even worth the paper it is written on. Nixon’s decree began the rise of inflation around the western world in the 1970’s and early 80’s, with our dollar no longer pegged to Gold, the government gave the opportunity for banks to print at will and therein devalue each and every dollar in existence. 

Inflation is NOT prices going up, Inflation is the value of your dollar going down.

Think of a glass of cordial, the creation of new dollars at will is like pouring more and more water into a glass of cordial, diluting the flavor of it. This is what printing more and more new money does to our existing money, it is a hidden tax, one which, as John Maynard Keynes rightly states, “not one man in a million is able to diagnose”.

The Abomination is Gradual.

The Lord refers to such work-related to money as “an abomination”, it is the highest level of deception which takes away the value of the work of a man, removing any hope of consistency and predictability in the toil of our hands. In days gone by creating counterfeit money was even punishable by death, so serious was such a crime, today governments do it by the stroke of a pen.

The last two years has witnessed the fastest and most extreme levels of borrowings ever seen both in Australia and around the world. This was not ‘borrowing’ in the traditional sense, this was an increase of the supply of money that will never be paid back without an inevitable  hyperinflationary collapse of the economic system. The extreme speed and level for which this ‘money printing’ has taken has me concerned that many people will not see it until it’s too late to do much about it. 

The buildup of inflation will be gradual; grocery items, petrol prices, commodity items all gradually increasing in price, nevertheless there historically comes a suddenness that takes far too many people by surprise. Such events have occurred throughout history, and such events are never easy to live through, though I believe this coming event will be global, we can learn from history as to how people were and are now able to live through it. 

To Be Continued…

Pr Edi Giudetti