And you cannot in general say that it is improper to print money in the face of resource constraints, unless you care more about preventing inflation than about reality-based macroeconomic planning. The question of whether it is sensible to print money is orthogonal to the question of resource constraints, because money is not a commodity, it is a tool for exercising political power. Whether an exercise of political power by the state is merited has no simple relationship with the state of raw material availability.
In the present situation, for instance, printing money is a very sensible thing to do in the face of current resource constraints. Because printing money is a prerequisite for taking those actions which will help to reduce our reliance on the resources whose availability is presently constraining us.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
