[freejulian]

> Poor people don't have savings.

What sort of nonsense is that? A lot of people don't have savings, sure, but there's also a lot of working class individuals who are financially responsible enough to save.

> If they do, it's in a 401k

Exactly my point -- the only way to save money is to risk handing it over to a corporation and crossing your fingers. Never mind that the general advice is not to invest money you plan on needing within the next 6 years.

> Inflation is good if you have net debt.

Not when the interest rate on your debt is higher than the rate of inflation.

You've done a sad job making any case at all for inflation.

[colanderman]

> [inflation is not good] when the interest rate on your debt is higher than the rate of inflation.

Yes, it's still good. It still decreases the real value of your principal. Deflation does the opposite.

[nwatson]

It's real good to be heavily in debt when inflation increases beyond expectations.

There were many government employees in Brazil who'd bought real estate in Brasília (the country's new-ish capital) with significant mortgages at reasonable fixed or quasi-fixed interest rates before the inflationary 1980's. After many years of 100% or 600% inflation in the 1980's, were left paying the equivalent of US$50 per month mortgage for awesome apartments.

[skookumchuck]

If you've studied interest rates on loans, the interest rate charged is X+Y, where X is the "real" interest rate, and Y is the inflation rate.

I.e. people who loan money are not stupid, and you're not getting any bargain because of inflation.

[saalweachter]

Which loans are you getting?

My mortgages are all using a fixed repayment plan, where the interest rate, payments, and repayment duration are fixed on day one. If the inflation rate doubled or halved next year, my loan terms won't change and I'd end up repaying less or more money, relatively.

[skookumchuck]

For fixed mortgage rates, the inflation over the period of the note is guessed at. The reason fixed mortgages charge more interest than adjustable ones is to take into account the risk of inflation increasing.

Many other loan rate, such as margin interest, are "prime rate plus X". The prime rate is inflation plus a constant.

Again, the people loaning out the money are not fools about inflation.