[pembrook]

It's counterintuitive, but inflation is a good thing. It incentivizes people to invest their money into the economy in businesses and government projects (bonds) instead of hoarding away their money in a bank account.

Unfortunately how our economy works is a highly complex topic, so for most people the gut reaction is "hrmmm, that doesn't make sense at first glance to me, so it must be wrong." Thankfully, average Joe American doesn't even know the Federal Reserve exists, so the FED is able to operate with a level of sanity found no where else in government.

The fact is, the FED is one of the only institutions we have that actually works because it is largely managed by subject-matter academics and not politicians, most of whom are lawyers/pastors/TV stars and war heroes...a group generally dificient in their understanding of modern economic theory.

Do central banks make mistakes? Of course. Japan is a great example. But a quick look at history shows the world is better off with them than without.

[rsync]

"It's counterintuitive, but inflation is a good thing."

Inflation is neither bad nor good - it has costs and it has benefits and we as a democratic society need to decide where we would like to (attempt to) set that dial.

"Thankfully, average Joe American doesn't even know the Federal Reserve exists, so the FED is able to operate ..."

The degree to which average citizens are unaware of the fed is the degree to which it can behave outside of the bounds of our democracy - and that is negative.

Further, their ignorance which you so deride does not keep them from noticing when they are getting screwed. A great many elderly folks on fixed incomes and inflation adjusted COLAs have felt just that way for a decade.

[salawat]

The thing that bugs me is the idea that money is best handed to someone else to do something with.

The more one blindly invests with only seeking ROI with actors maximizing around the same metric is how you generate business landscapes that would seem incredibly hostile to competition if run to their logical conclusion.