Re: hyper inflation in the USA?
Going back to the original topic, what is this hyperinflation you people speak of?
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The Dollar has gained slightly over the Euro and Sterling since quantitative easing began. (And lost against the Yen, obviously, but sadly the earthquake and tsunami are already adjusting that.)
I will go out an a limb and say that so far I am very happy with our government's management of the financial crisis. It is not sexy at all, but I suspect the history books will call this Obama's biggest achievement: taking a likely huge financial meltdown, and softening it into a moderate crisis.
12% unemployment sucks (when your country is used to 5%), but it's sure better than 35%.
Also, 2% inflation, 4% inflation: these are vastly more preferable than even 0.1% deflation. So if the risk of quantative easing is that it might push 2% inflation into 4% inflation -- but it hedges against the real risk of deflation -- I'm all for it.
Marjan: I don't want to pile on, but I do have a couple of points. You offered a link (seems to be broken) to images of bombed-out Detroit. We in the US are aware of that; I have certainly wondered why that area is so depressed while my area of the country is much more prosperous. And there are some very simple economic and demographic reasons for this disparity (but they are hard to fix).
So I have to ask you an analogous question. You refer a number of times to the former Yugoslavia, so that made me think about the region as a whole. Are you saying the US and NATO are entirely to blame for the very different outcomes of various Balkan states? Or to put it another way, are you saying that Macedonia and Kosovo would be just as prosperous as Slovenia, if it weren't for NATO bombs? (This is a real question; I'm not just trying to wind you up. Believe it or not, there are some of us who have studied a bit of your history.)
cheers to all,
waldo
