“Today, people are beginning to understand that the government’s account is overdrawn…”

“‘Inflation’ is defined in the dictionary as ‘undue expansion or increase of the currency of a country, esp. by the issuing of paper money not redeemable in specie’ (Random House Dictionary). It is interesting to note that the word ‘inflated’ is defined as ‘distended with air or gas; swollen.’

“This last is not a coincidence: in regard to social issues, ‘inflation’ does not mean growth, enlargement or expansion, it means an ‘undue’—or improper or fraudulent—expansion. The expansion of a country’s currency (which, incidentally, cannot be perpetrated by private citizens, only by the government) consists in palming off, as values, a stream of paper backed by nothing but promises (or hot air) and getting actual values, the citizens’ goods or services, in return—until the country’s wealth is drained. A similar activity, in private performance, is the passing of checks on a non-existent bank account. But, in private performance, this is regarded as a crime—and most people understand why such an activity cannot last for long.

“Today, people are beginning to understand that the government’s account is overdrawn, that a piece of paper is not the equivalent of a gold coin, or an automobile, or a loaf of bread—and that if you attempt to falsify monetary values, you do not achieve abundance, you merely debase the currency and go bankrupt.”

~ Ayn Rand, from her essay ‘Moral Inflation’