Catch-all of economic flotsam

A good post should have a plot, right? Well, there's no time! They're on to me!

Quick, get ready for inflation, as per Milton "dry as a rewind*" Friedman, ca 1977:

Inflation is just like alcoholism. In both cases when you start drinking or when
you start printing too much money, the good effects come first. The bad effects
only come later...That's why in both cases there is a strong temptation to
overdo it. To drink too much and to print too much money. When it comes to the
cure, it's the other way around. When you stop drinking or when you stop
printing money, the bad effects come first and the good effects only come later.
That's why it's so hard to persist with the cure. In the United States, four
times in the 20 years after 1957, we undertook the cure. But each time we lacked
the will to continue. As a result, we had all the bad effects and none of the
good effects.

Also, in case you ever start thinking the Fed is actually a branch of the government, which it's not:

http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/Secrets_of_the_Federal_Reserve/secrets_of_the_federal_reserve_TC.htm



* GQ, September 1992