Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 10:08:14 -0700 From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com> (Also, note that a constant money supply in a growing economy is effectively deflationary. Below, you call this a "view". I call this a clear fact, and feel sorry for anyone who doesn't immediately see it also! The money supply must increase at least as fast as economic growth or it will serve as an active brake on the economy, IMO. I don't know what economic school this view comes from, but I first heard it from Milton Friedman.) They thought that the inflation they saw was due to psychological factors, people not trusting the bank, or greedy merchants trying to take advantage of the public. (These arguments were echoed in the 1970's and 1980's, but they have of course been widely discredited now. The issue was far less clear in 1850.) Discredited but still bandied about. -russ <nelson@crynwr.com> ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav Crynwr Software | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | ask4 PGP key 11 Grant St. | +1 315 268 1925 (9201 FAX) | Quakers do it in the light Potsdam, NY 13676 | LPF member - ask me about the harm software patents do.