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Comment by imsd | Hacker News Reader

There are a few types of inflation:

1) Monetary inflation: growth of broad money supply; 2) Asset price inflation: stocks, bonds, real estate; 3) Consumer price inflation: everyday goods

Sure, while consumer price inflation is hovering around 2%, asset price inflation is running closer to 10-20%.

I account for inflation as it relates to the basket of goods and services most important in my life. Some of those items are everyday goods inflating at 2% annually. But the biggest things that matter to me: higher education, a home/real estate, medical care ... these are all inflating at a much, much higher pace. In this way, "2% annual inflation" completely misses the mark.

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"Inflating" is not the same as "going up." You're conflating two things that are unrelated under the guise of the same name and it muddies the water on this already challenging conversation.

Asset price inflation is not inflation, its ROI, and until there's a study, we won't really know why assets are going up. It may be due to increased liquidity, it might be stimulus checks, it might be all sorts of stuff. You're speculating, and if you're going to make a claim like that we're gonna need a citation.

I'm not saying these things don't matter, I'm saying [citation needed] that it's got anything to do with the Fed.

If I'm the only doctor in town and I charge $1000 one day for a surgery and $2000 the next because I feel like it, that's not inflation.

> I account for inflation as it relates to the basket of goods and services most important in my life.

Feel free but the rest of us are talking about a specific meaning of inflation which is not the same as yours, and so should be addressed in a different thread to avoid confusing people.

1. Yes, medicine is getting more expensive.

2. It's going up faster than inflation.

3. This is not inflation.

> Asset price inflation is not inflation, its ROI

For the millions of young adults trying to afford a home right now, it is not ROI. For those fortunate enough to have a portfolio of real assets (including a home/real estate), sure.

1. Wages have kept pace with inflation.

2. You're not supposed to save dollars you're supposed to invest dollars. You invest them until you have enough stored value to purchase a house - or at least make the down payment. Once you buy SPY, or bonds, or magic beans that live in your computer, inflation no longer matters.

3. Housing prices are on average the same price now as they have been since the 1970s per square foot across the US (inflation adjusted). New houses are now twice as big. Higher housing prices relative to inflation is largely due to building codes, regulation, and councils restricting development in spite of massive demand. One way to solve this is national zoning ordinances like in Japan where housing can be built in every zone. One way to not solve this at all is Bitcoin, because it doesn't change any of the real issues re: zoning and supply/demand.

None of this is new, this is how it's worked forever.

This has nothing to do with the money supply.

[1] https://fee.org/articles/new-homes-today-have-twice-the-squa...

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