[walleeee]

Aren't these points orthogonal? Yes, money flows when it's not parked somewhere, but when a lot of people use extra cash for unproductive speculation it tends to make current or future recessions worse. What is needed is deliberate investment of time, money and effort building a prosperous future, not throwing surplus income at shiny things and hoping it magically multiplies.

[sp527]

> Aren't these points orthogonal?

No they are not orthogonal. You seem to still not understand. What happens to the money used to buy an unproductive speculative asset? The answer is it keeps moving and, in fact, on average it probably continues to move very quickly so long as it's stuck in speculation limbo. Hence, on average, it doesn't stay trapped in speculation limbo for very long. It's a brief detour, not a destination.

[walleeee]

Ok, can you help me understand? Are you saying direct stimulus is not a big factor in the recent inflation? If not, what is?

And would you say it's a good thing for the circulation you describe to float free of productive activity? I would say, sure, for a little while and in moderate amounts. But if allowed to expand without bound and continue indefinitely it risks untethering minds and markets from the material foundations that make it all possible in the first place

[sp527]

I look at money as renewable energy and yes you absolutely would prefer that energy be channeled into more productive uses. Whatever would maximize collective human flourishing. But the overarching point I'm trying to make here is that rapidly expanding the money supply will cause problems. Congress and the Fed pumped money into the economy with reckless abandon and now we're paying the price.

[jjeaff]

While it's true that too much money can cause an overheated economy and inflation, I think it still remains to be seen how much of our current inflation problem is due to increased demand or simply supply restrictions. After all, all the major ports in the US are still back logged and not back to normal. The cost to ship a container from China to a west coast port went from $7k to $20k in the last 2 years and it is just now starting to go back down a little bit.