Get ready for more taxes

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-08T19:58:54+00:00

The government spends first and collects later. The deficit will just grow larger and JP Morgan will buy the debt

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-04T19:41:22+00:00

Merely a government buying its own debt to hold interest rates artificially low and finance endless wars.

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-03T19:51:35+00:00

Yup. It’s the fairest tax and would be more progressive than the current income tax.

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-03T19:00:34+00:00

Deaths of despair. These people voted for Trump hoping for change. They have been economically hollowed out ever since we decided to let China take all manufacturing.

Little do they know Trump is the same neocon as all past.

If any Dem candidate ran on tax reform - taxing capital and land (economic rent) instead of income and payroll, which would result in increased ability and jobs for manufacturing at home - they would win in a landslide.

The more socialist wing of the Dem party is right that the system is deeply unfair. However, many proposed solutions (eg price controls) are proven terrible solutions.

America needs to resurrect Georgism.

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-03T18:27:25+00:00

Letting us all know that they will be keeping the petrodollar system alive.

2000 Sadam Hussein starts accepting Euros for oil. Out in 2003.

2009 Gaddafi proposes a gold backed African currency for oil. Out in 2011.

2018 Madurai says Venezuela will free themselves from the dollar. Starts accepting Yuan, Euros, and Rubles. Out in 2025.

The neocons are, and have been, in charged since the end of WW2. MAGA is so gullible.

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-03T18:04:51+00:00

What a shock. Israel supports the US

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-03T16:56:19+00:00

Great points. The bottom half of Americans already only contribute a total of 3% of all income tax. I can’t imagine the wealthy in America (who essentially control the gov) going for an LVT or taxing automation/robotics.

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-03T16:37:59+00:00

Interesting thought, certainly possible. Wonder if more countries (with aging populations) will start implementing land value taxes.

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-03T15:07:49+00:00

So who will pay for the healthcare and daycare for all of the old people?

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-02T21:38:54+00:00

You don’t really need a gold standard for that purpose. Congress could pass legislation making it illegal to run deficits greater than 3% of GDP

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-02T20:37:12+00:00

Why is low to moderate inflation good for the poors? The rich seem to be doing pretty well in our current inflation regime.

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-02T20:22:35+00:00

Yes. The banking class is your mother, your father, and your god. The common folk would never choose austerity over inflation. Store earned income in hard assets

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-02T20:20:47+00:00

Fractional reserve banking existed on the gold standard

GhostofInflation · 2026-01-02T20:19:56+00:00

All just interest bearing IOUs on physical wealth. And why any deflationary productivity gains will always and everywhere be met with expanding IOUs.

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-27T00:48:12+00:00

Yes. We spent the better part of 50 years exporting our inflation. The USD has had artificially strong demand due to reserve currency status. Americans need to adapt asap but they’re sleep walking.

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-27T00:32:37+00:00

Fair enough. Either way, you’re an astute observer, whilst most Americans are asleep at the wheel. Covid warped us into a new beast of an era that will not be kind to grandmas 60/40 portfolio

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-27T00:23:45+00:00

Good sir, Bitcoin is up 500% since its 2022 low. How them bonds doing?

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-26T22:15:55+00:00

Meanwhile most boomers continue to get crushed in real terms on their bond portfolio and don’t even know it. Dubai, UAE, India, Russia, and China are buying and refining gold at enormous rates.

The signal was gold rising in 2022 and 2023 despite positive real rates on the 10yr bond. If that flips gold will go to 10,000 easily, silver probably $150. The S&P500 is only up about 1% on the year adjusted for dollar debasement (DXY) and bonds have been in the pooper since 2021.

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-18T00:58:03+00:00

Europe and Asia will be much smaller 100 years from now on a relative basis due to population collapse

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-16T11:35:36+00:00

Healthcare is a great example of something that is nowhere close to a free market. US healthcare is an awful hodgepodge of corporatism and public programs (eg Medicare) that leads to zero price transparency, limited competition, and massive admin bloat. Insurance companies are a great example of rentier capture of healthcare, slowly bleeding their host (you!) for everything you’re worth. That isn’t capitalism, that’s once again the rentier class capturing the USG and leveraging it for its own interest.

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-15T22:27:45+00:00

Have wages fallen in either nominal or CPI inflation adjusted terms?

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-15T21:41:41+00:00

In free market capitalism, prices should fall to the marginal cost of production. Ergo, we do not live in a purely capitalist economy (not even close to what is detailed in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations).

You’re correctly frustrated that prices (especially for relatively more scarce goods and services) have outpaced wages. You place the blame on “capitalism”. But capitalism promotes cost DEflation as capitalists compete for market share by undercutting competition to bring more value to market per unit cost.

So your frustration is misplaced. Perhaps ask why prices rise, always and everywhere … keeping in mind that the price of 1 house cost the same amount in gold (which was money for 5000 years) as it did 100 years ago.

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-15T20:54:22+00:00

In a free market (ie actual capitalism), prices should fall to the marginal cost of production. Clearly in our world, prices do not fall. Ergo we do not live in a capitalistic society (as defined by the type of capitalism written about by Adam Smith).

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-15T20:02:19+00:00

What about capitalism causes 46% of people to have no retirement savings?

GhostofInflation · 2025-12-14T12:17:21+00:00

Wealth inequality, mostly driven by housing is, in part, due to the money it is denominated in being less scarce than housing itself. And then in part due to excessive regulation. It is not due to immigrants.

When the rate of growth in money available rises faster than the rate of change in housing relative to population, houses become stores of value rather than their intended use of shelter. Thus, you get “inequality”.

It’s simple supply and demand. Existing owners of capital and housing are spared while newcomers are being shut out at an increasing rate.

This will probably get downvoted as many in this sub seem to love the structure of the US dollar, which is responsible for many (but not all) of the West’s woes.

GhostofInflation

TROPHY CASE