A more accessible view of discussion in that archive (which is a metzdowd mirror):
http://pl.it-usenet.org/group/11834/2008/11/http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/thrd10.htmlAnd interesting posts, Satoshi had been working a while on it:
I appreciate your questions. I actually did this kind of backwards. I had to write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every problem, then I wrote the paper. I think I will be able to release the code sooner than I could write a detailed spec.
and about inflation or deflation from coin creation rate:
The fact that new coins are produced means the money supply increases by a planned amount, but this does not necessarily result in inflation. If the supply of money increases at the same rate that the number of people using it increases, prices remain stable. If it does not increase as fast as demand, there will be deflation and early holders of money will see its value increase.
Coins have to get initially distributed somehow, and a constant rate seems like the best formula.
Satoshi Nakamoto
Almost 4000 BTC a day is still getting printed ($4M USD worth), and it hardly debases the currency.