Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it becomes marked: ‘Account overdrawn.’
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
Rand is right: The nature of money is a fundamental moral question.
The Bernank says there is not inflation, or where there is it doesn’t result from his creation of “money.” The official inflation figures exclude food and energy, but they do include the cost of housing. That certainly keeps a lid on it. As long as the price of your house has tanked, don’t worry about buying food or gasoline: It averages out. We are also reassured that the increased capability of iPad2 offsets the increased cost of food, and is factored into reducing the CPI calculation. No worries.
Aside perhaps from corn, production of which taxpayers must subsidize so they may then be taxed when they are forced to burn it in their automobiles – in order to appease lobbyists representing Iowa farmers and Archer Daniels Midland – I can’t see why else food prices are so rapidly increasing. Neither can Walmart’s CEO, nor the truly poor in Egypt and Libya, for example, who don’t buy iPads of any sort.
For a view somewhat contrary to that of Ben and his Banditos – who, after all, have a vested interest in convincing you there is no inflation – I’d suggest checking here and here (you’ll have to select a country).