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Comment by MeinBlutIstBlau | Hacker News Reader

>If this pandemic does not teach nations, governments and people why it is so important to have short local and capable supply chains, I don't know what will.

I don't think a single billionaire or bureaucrat is gonna bat an eyelash. Inflation doesn't affect them. Deflation does. That's why they stripped every single mean from the lower classes being capable of doing so.

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Not quite. Inflation makes the value of debts lessen. Most rich people are creditors, that's why the Fed is such an inflation hawk. However, the inflation in consumer products without wage increases just doubly screws the working class, though it could lead to widespread bankruptcy if it gets intense enough. That would affect rich people.

Rich people have most of their assets in equities, not loans or fixed-income securities. As a general asset class, business equity is usually a pretty good hedge against inflation.

It can be so-so at times. IIRC, there was a 5-10 year period in I think the 70s/80s when the S&P 500 returned nothing. Course, it took off after that.

Hoovervilles were not filled with rich people. In fact, in 2008, expensive cars barely saw a dent in sales cause the people that can afford them are heavily resistant to shocks of that caliber. Rich people are most definitely not creditors. Banks are. Rich people don't give out loans like banks. The rich don't get affected by poorer people who declare bankruptcy. The rich lose when poor people think money is greater than whatever BS commodity they're peddling that they can't recoup losses trying to sell it. That's why panics were more common back in the day. They're virtually a thing of the past nowt hat the Fed just prints money making everything think you gotta invest constantly or just lose money to inflation.

Banks aren't institutions of the rich?? The rich will be perfectly insulated if the financial system crashes??

Banks are institutions. Rich people are not banks and not creditors, the institution is.

Is it that everyone thinks that, and it's not true, or is it true but doesn't have to be true?

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