What is inflation?

In economic terms, inflation is the steady increase of the price of goods and services that accompanies an increase in the supply of currency. The average inflation of a developed country is generally near 2%. This means that if your investments see a 10% gain in a year, you need to account for inflation which reduces it to a 8% gain in today’s dollars.

The major source of economic inflation is today’s fiat money system. Governments around the world can create new money whenever it suits them. They can do that directly, by printing banknotes. Or they can do it indirectly, by allowing central banks to expand their credit by writing cheques on bank accounts whose only asset is the government’s borrowing capacity. Whenever a government creates new money, it increases the potential for inflation in its home country. When the U.S. does it, it increases the potential for worldwide inflation, since the U.S. dollar serves as one of the main assets of central banks around the world.

Our view is that inflation soared in North America in the 1970s and 1980s, partly due to the maturing of the baby boomers. As baby boomers entered the workforce and replaced older workers, they had to be trained in their new jobs. This hurt productivity and spurred businesses to raise prices. As the boomers formed families, they borrowed to buy their first homes, so they were bidding up both real-estate prices and interest rates.

The inflationary effect of their home buying spread out and pushed up prices throughout the economy. There are a number of different investments that aim to offset inflation. This includes real return bonds that pay you a rate of return that is adjusted for inflation. However, we don’t recommend them, unless you are very concerned about inflation.

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