The author forgoes the usual macroeconomic theories, graphs and charts to examine and debunk this hyperinflation myth. He instead employs a sound conceptual understanding and common sense in exploring the viewpoints of dollar-holding global actors. The author s revealing research points to rampant inflation as being exceedingly unlikely as a result of either the economic and financial problems facing the United States or the astronomical government stimulus. Regardless of the ultimate severity of economic downturn, any US dollar decline has only the remotest chance of reaching a magnitude approaching hyperinflation.
Demonstrated in detail in this book are why several key underpinnings of the gold bugs theory of mass destruction of the US economy are only myths. The author specifically debunks the notions that: (1) a largely consumer-driven economy must be tenuous; (2) a large dollar decline would turn into free fall rather than meet resistance; (3) money supply increases must eventually create corresponding price inflation; and (4) an exporting base is somehow required for American prosperity, among others.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 The Schiff View and the Gold Bugs
2 Economic Value and Economic Activity
3 The 'Consumption is Waste' Myth
4 Why a Dollar Plunge Would Self-Correct
5 Inflation by Way of the Money Supply
6 Other Inflation: Producer Costs and Creeping Inflation
7 Fiat Currency, Backing and Faith
8 Mitigating Factors in the Astronomical Government Borrowing
9 Do Borders Even Matter?
10 The Folly of Forecasts and the Great Lumping
Afterword
Richard Moheban says: "A few years from now [July 2009], Peter Schiff, John Williams, Marc Faber, James Turk and other adamant 'hyperinflationists' will be scratching their heads wondering what went wrong with their certain prediction of runaway inflation. The truth is that there will be no extreme price inflation in the United States. The dollar will suffer no catastrophic fall. Those pundits who insist that the dollar is doomed (due to the massive creation of money by the Fed) fail to grasp the true relationship between the money supply and price levels. My book takes a unique view in exploring the conditions in which money creation does cause higher prices. Fortunately, those conditions do not exist in the US economy."