The inflation myth and the wonderful world of deflation Ebook

In this book, Mark Mobius, one of the world’s most respected investors, offers an in-depth insight into the history of monetary appreciation and depreciation, showing the goals of using and manipulating government and central bank statistics and how we can see through it. It is designed to ask questions regarding a subject that is important to everyone and of which there is a great deal of debate: Inflation. Written in a conversational tone, the book is divided in short illustrative anecdotes, which makes it very readable and entertaining, and lays out the following ideas: The concept of inflation is a myth for a number of reasons. Prices of goods and services in terms of the currency of the day rise from time to time but those prices manifest themselves in different places and at different times in a multitude of ways for different people. The interest in inflation statistics is of immense interest to governments around the world because rising prices elicit a political response among their constituents. The measurement of inflation is severely flawed not because the diligent people who gather statistics regarding the prices of goods and services around the world are not being qualified or faithful to their effort, but because they are not only shooting at a moving target with prices changing up or down in a minute by minute basis but also the very nature of the products and services they are trying to measure are continuously changing. Currencies, the measuring stick, used to monitor price changes, have throughout history been debased by every authority that issued them. Governments around the world are very concerned regarding inflation since their constituents will be unhappy if costs seem to be increasing at a rapid rate. Therefore, not only do those governments put substantial resources into measuring inflation but they also do their best to control the numbers by taking many actions. Incomes in currency terms or the buying power of consumers change continuously. So, for most of history, incomes have tended to match price increases. The effect of this phenomenon is that although it may seem that inflation is taking place, and there is even an inflationary spiral, actually, products and services are getting cheaper in terms of the earnings power of the consumer. The Inflation Myth and the Wonderful World of Deflation is, on one hand, an introduction to the history and concept of inflation, but on the other it is a thought provoking, timely piece of work that is challenging conventional wisdom and offering an explanation of big questions that traditional theories fail to answer.