HYPERINFLATION PART 3

Historical U.S. Inflation: Why Hyperinflation Instead of Deflation

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

- Robert Frost

As to the fate of the developing U.S. great depression, it will encompass the fire of a hyperinflation, instead of the ice of deflation seen in the major U.S. depressions prior to World War II. What promises hyperinflation this time is the lack monetary discipline formerly imposed on the system by the gold standard, and a Federal Reserve dedicated to preventing a collapse in the money supply and the implosion of the still, extremely over-leveraged domestic financial system.

The accompanying two graphs measure the level of consumer prices since 1665 in the American Colonies and later the United States. The first graph shows what appears to be a fairly stable level of prices up to the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913 (began activity in 1914) and Franklin Roosevelt's abandoning of the gold standard in 1933. Then, inflation takes off in a manner not seen in the prior 250 years, and at an exponential rate when viewed using the SGS-Alternate Measure of Consumer Prices in the last several decades. The price levels shown prior to 1913 were constructed by Robert Sahr of Oregon State University. Price levels since 1913 either are Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) or SGS based, as indicated.

The magnitude of the increase in price levels in the last 50 years or so, however, visually masks in the first graph the inflation volatility of the earlier years. That volatility becomes evident in the second graph, with inflation history shown only through 1960.

What is shown in the second graph is that up through the Great Depression, regular periods of inflation - usually seen around wars - have been offset by periods of deflation. Particular inflation spikes can be seen at the time of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I and World War II.

The inflation peaks and the ensuing post-war depressions and deflationary periods tied to the War of 1812, the Civil War and World War I show close to 60-year cycles, which is part of the reason some economists and analysts have been expecting a deflationary depression in the current period. There is some reason behind 30- and 60-year financial and business cycles, as the average difference in generations in the U.S. is 30 years, going back to the 1600s. Accordingly, it seems to take two generations to forget and repeat the mistakes of one's grandparents. Similar reasoning accounts for other cycles that tend to run in multiples of 30 years.

Aside from minor average annual price level declines in 1944 and 1955, the United States has not seen a deflationary period in consumer prices since before World War II. The reason for this is the same as to why there has not been a formal depression since before World War II: the abandonment of the gold standard and recognition by the Federal Reserve of the impact of monetary policy - free of gold-standard system restraints - on the economy.

The gold standard was a system that automatically imposed and maintained monetary discipline. Excesses in one period would be followed by a flight of gold from the system and a resulting contraction in the money supply, economic activity and prices.

Faced with the Great Depression, and unable to stimulate the economy, partially due to the monetary discipline imposed by the gold standard, Franklin Roosevelt used those issues as an excuse to abandon gold and to adopt close to a fully fiat currency under the auspices of what I call the debt standard, where the government effectively could print and spend whatever money it wanted to.

Roosevelt's actions were against the backdrop of the banking system being in a state of collapse. The Fed stood by twiddling its thumbs as banks failed and the money supply imploded. A depression collapsed into the Great Depression, with intensified price deflation. Importantly, a sharp decline in broad money supply is a prerequisite to goods and services price deflation. Messrs Greenspan and Bernanke are students of the Great Depression period. As did Mr. Greenspan before him, "Helicopter Ben" has vowed not to allow a repeat of the 1930s money supply collapse.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke picked up his various helicopter nicknames and references as the result of a November 21, 2002 speech he gave as a Fed Governor to the National Economists Club entitled "Deflation: Making Sure ‘It' Doesn't Happen Here." The phrase that the now-Fed Chairman Bernanke likely wishes he had not used was a reference to "Milton Friedman's famous ‘helicopter drop' of money."

Attempting to counter concerns of another Great Depression-style deflation, Bernanke explained in his remarks: "I am confident that the Fed would take whatever means necessary to prevent significant deflation in the United States ..." As a quick point of clarification, Mr. Bernanke's actions to address the current banking system's solvency issues are still in the preventative phase. The money supply is not in collapse, and the Fed has not started dropping cash from helicopters, yet, but the choppers are in the air and remain at the ready.

As expounded upon by Mr. Bernanke, "Indeed, under a fiat (that is, paper) money system, a government (in practice, the central bank in cooperation with other agencies) should always be able to generate increased nominal spending and inflation, even when the short-term nominal interest rate is at zero."

"Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation." The full text of then-Fed Governor Bernanke's remarks can be found at: http://federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2002/20021121/default.htm.

Where Franklin Roosevelt abandoned the gold standard and its financial discipline for the debt standard, eleven successive administrations have pushed the debt standard to the limits of its viability, as seen now in the ongoing threat of possible systemic collapse. The effect of these policies has been a slow-motion destruction of the U.S. dollar's purchasing power, as seen in the accompanying table, since the gold standard was abandoned in 1933.

Loss of U.S. Dollar Purchasing Power through March 2008                                    ----Since January of ----             Versus:                1914      1933      1970              Swiss franc           -80.4%    -80.4%    -76.5%              CPI-U                 -95.1%    -94.0%    -82.3%              Gold                  -97.9%    -97.9%    -93.4%              SGS-Alternate CPI     -98.2%    -97.8%    -93.6%             Note: Gold and Swiss franc values were held constant             by the gold standard versus coins in 1914 and 1933.             Sources: Shadow Government Statistics, Federal Reserve,

As discussed in the next section, the limits to the unlimited abuse of the debt standard are particularly evident in the GAAP-based financial statements of the U.S. government, which show the actual federal deficit at $4.0-plus trillion for 2007, alone, with total federal obligations standing at $62.6 trillion. With no ability to honor these obligations, the government effectively is bankrupt.

At such debt levels, the markets soon will recoil from lending Uncle Sam whatever he needs. Major buyers of U.S. Treasuries from outside the United States, including a number of central banks, already are balking. These investors have funded nearly all net U.S. Treasury debt issuance of the last five years, putting to use the excess dollars flushed into the global markets by the United States' excessive and ever-expanding trade deficit. This practice, however, generated liquidity for the U.S. markets that has helped to depress long-term Treasury yields as well as to boost equity prices, in general.

Although the U.S, government faces ultimate insolvency, it has the same way out taken by most countries faced with bankruptcy. It can print whatever money it needs to create, in order to meet its obligations. The effect of such action is a runaway inflation - a hyperinflation - with a resulting, effective full debasement of the U.S. dollar, the world's reserve currency. The magnitude of the loss of the U.S. dollar's purchasing power in the last 75 years now has the potential of being replicated within a few days or weeks.

In the present environment, the chances for the collapse in money supply needed to generate a consumer price deflation are nil. First, the discipline of the gold standard that helped trigger historical deflations is gone. Second, both from the standpoint of the government's fiscal irresponsibility and from the Fed's standpoint of providing the financial system with whatever liquidity is needed to keep it afloat, the U.S. central bank already is pushing broad money growth to new extremes, not containing it.

Shown in the next four graphs are powerful fundamentals that either drive U.S. inflation or reflect market expectations of the longer-term domestic inflation outlook. Oil prices are near historic highs, the dollar is near historic lows, and money growth is at an all-time. The near-term outlook for all three series is for new record levels and for extremely strong upside pressure on U.S. inflation. Accordingly, gold prices should continue moving higher, setting new historic highs.