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by jms18 3215 days ago
> Will governments around the world begin to make their currency deflationary in order to make it attractive?

rofl

If you want people to use currency more, you make it inflate faster. This guy does not understand macroeconomics.

4 comments

Old joke from engineering school: How did the economist cross the river? He assumed a boat.
Q: How do you know macro economists have a sense of humor?

A: They use decimals.

thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this article doesn't properly understand the intricacies of inflation/deflation in an economy
Yes, I certainly can't say I'm an economics expert. Mind sharing with me what part of the article you think is misguided?
Yes. I posted my thoughts in another comment > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15184382

Honestly, I'm kind of scared/surprised more people aren't talking about this.

Thanks for the link. I'm not sure where in the article I said inflation is worse than deflation. I don't feel I know enough about economics to express an opinion about this.

What I'm trying to say is that if people have a choice, they'll keep their wealth in a currency that destroys their wealth the least slowly. This, I suspect, will have a runaway effect. We probably wouldn't be able to stop it if we tried, which sounds a lot like the AI singularity.

My concern is that you ignore the effects of deflation in your argument altogether, which you simply cannot do.

You are also effectively demoting the US dollar to the current inferior currency of the two to support your little adage, which I find a bit strange.

I believe your intention was just to write a little thought experiment, which is cool. I'm just a little baffled the way some people follow along for the ride without question.

Perhaps obvious, but I hold no cryptocurrency. I'm not saying I never would, but the sheer amount of dreamy speculation like this is exactly what keeps me away from the market.

By "effects of deflation", are you referring to the claimed ill-effects of deflation, that will grind the economy to a halt? If so, mind helping me understand why I can't disregard that?

I appreciate your replies - not sure if I mentioned it earlier to you, but I posted it here in HN because there is no shortage of smart people willing to express their thoughts.

If I read this comment right, I agree with you. People will use inflationary currencies more because they aren't as good as a store of value.