religiouslib,

Thanks for your reply. I have four points:

1. What makes you think I am a conservative? What I am is a person who studies the business cycles and who actually lived through the Carter-years inflation. It was hell on wheels.

2. What makes you think my desire is to cut taxes and deregulate? Did I say anything to that effect? If you disagree with what I actually say, go for it. Just don't attribute to me attitudes and opinions I have not expressed. (In debate, that is called creating a straw man and it loses points.)

3. I agree that we are not experiencing inflation now. But, your statement that "no serious economist has verified that inflation is coming," is just not right. Most, both on the left and the right, say it is coming, because there is so much money in the system and because we are projecting huge Federal deficits for years and years. The reason it has not come yet is that consumers are saving rather than spending and the banks, awash with money, are not lending. When those trends abate, and as the dollar continues to devalue, inflation will hit us very, very hard. The question is when, not whether it is coming. We all need to be thinking about ways to protect ourselves from high inflation over the next decade. Having experienced it once before, I have few good ideas to offer.

4. I specifically did not use the term "hyperinflation." That is another matter and not in the cards for us, according to most economists whose opinions I read. To the best of my knowledge, no economists on either side of the political spectrum are predicting hyperinflation. Who, exactly, were "the cryers and screamers on the right" you were referring to?