House passes Audit the Fed bill.

[TJ in Oregon]

If the Fed really is secretly monetizing debt, why would we be better off knowing? Wouldn't that just cause inflation?

[TJ in Oregon]

If the Fed really is secretly monetizing debt, why would we be better off knowing? Wouldn't that just cause inflation?

So you would rather remain ignorant and have everything blow up in our faces much, much harder?

I would rather remain ignorant in the hope that it doesn't blow up at all. And why should it blow up? It's not like we have an inflation problem at the moment--and in this case the long run doesn't matter because the Fed can just change its policy if this changes--so why mess with it? If the Fed is, we're just getting a free stimulus. I know this sounds backwards and wrong to a lot of people, but neither money nor gold have an objective value; both are worth whatever people think they're worth. If the Fed's printing too much money and pumping it into the economy, as long as no one knows, who cares? But if we all find out, then the everyone will start devaluing our currency much more. And maybe the Fed really is just adding 2% each year like they're supposed it. But if they're not I for one don't want us to know it.

This isn't an ideological view. I'm just worried we're going to create an inflationary economic mess for no reason.

[TJ in Oregon]

If the Fed really is secretly monetizing debt, why would we be better off knowing? Wouldn't that just cause inflation?

So you would rather remain ignorant and have everything blow up in our faces much, much harder?

I would rather remain ignorant in the hope that it doesn't blow up at all. And why should it blow up? It's not like we have an inflation problem at the moment--and in this case the long run doesn't matter because the Fed can just change its policy if this changes--so why mess with it? If the Fed is, we're just getting a free stimulus. I know this sounds backwards and wrong to a lot of people, but neither money nor gold have an objective value; both are worth whatever people think they're worth. If the Fed's printing too much money and pumping it into the economy, as long as no one knows, who cares? But if we all find out, then the everyone will start devaluing our currency much more. And maybe the Fed really is just adding 2% each year like they're supposed it. But if they're not I for one don't want us to know it.

This isn't an ideological view. I'm just worried we're going to create an inflationary economic mess for no reason.

Some libertarians believe there's, uh, magical secret hyperinflation going on, we just haven't noticed yet.

It's not that it is happening-it's that it has happened, and could happen.

How is it even possible to have hyperinflation, or inflation at all, happen without anyone knowing? Inflation is by definition a general rise in price levels of goods and services, which are known publically. It's not like inflation is caused only by the amount of currency the market; it's also possible that additional currency will result in greater investment in productive goods and services in the economy. That is the entire point of lowering interest rates: to get more people to borrow money and invest it in the economy.

The economy doesn't work like conservative forces or non-nuclear mass calculations; it's not a zero-sum game.