Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: Is BTC really a deflating currency or an inflating?
by
kjj
on 05/12/2013, 13:01:24 UTC
Dishonesty...  I'm not sure you are using that word correctly.  It does not mean "disagrees with me".

Many people would argue that as far as economics is concerned, "supply" is shorthand for "apparent supply", which is more or less the same thing as saying "in circulation".

But this is exactly what the definitions are not being used for. They are being used to refer explicitly to increases or decreases in the quantity of money--notions that are completely irrelevant compared to the effects of money in circulation which has many more complex interactions and implications. These "easy" definitions are being used to pretend that the problems associated with deflation are not worth talking about because, lol, there is no deflation.

Yeah, I'm not seeing what you are seeing.  In fact, you can hardly swing a cat in this forum without hitting a dozen threads where people mention the horror of falling prices.  Their claims aren't dismissed because the money supply is still expanding, they are dismissed because they are the same rote recitations that we've all read and argued a hundred times before.

If you have something new to add, hopefully something of substance, please do.  Plenty of us would love to hear it.  I'll even make a point of clicking "show" on your ignored posts for another couple of days just to see.

Quote
Your PS is silly.  People use "inflation" to mean either "increase in quantity of money" or "increase of prices".  The inverse terms are "deflation", "decrease in quantity of money" and "decrease of prices".  If we have offended you by failing to use one of those terms sufficiently, we apologize for the oversight.

You pointed out that inflation was originally a term used to describe an increase of money in circulation. It is now used to describe a general increase in the price level. Historically, deflation as a term came about much later than inflation and always referred to a general decrease in the price level. No one of any merit has ever used it to mean specifically a decrease in the quantity of money or money in circulation. At some point, you have to give up this silly definition charade because all it does is create a microcosm of bitcoinomics that hinders any real discussion--likely the intended purpose. Intellectual dishonesty.

Meh.  The definition of deflation as a decrease in the money supply follows very naturally by analogy with inflation as an increase.  With bitcoin, we finally have a currency where the money supply can shrink.  We need a term to describe that, we picked the term that makes the most sense to us.  I get it that this causes you much grief, but you really need to get over it.