Ben Bernanke Press Conference

You know... I keep hearing that word "hyperinflation" all the time but I never see a definition of it. Because of that, I have no idea what constitutes hyperinflation. Does anyone really know? Is it when prices increase by 10% per year? 20%? 50%? 100%? More? I have no clue. I do know that it can be really bad... think Weimar Republic, WW I era, or Zimbabwe, in more recent times. Their currencies were devalued right to zero. Poof! Gone! Are these hyperinflation or just the worst possible examples of it?

Just remember, folks... gold and silver are VERY unlikely to become inflated. They are true stores of value and have been recognized all around the world for thousands or years. Their success is due to the fact that no government can wave a pen and create so much as a single gram of either one... unlike fiat currencies that can be created without any limit whatsoever. The difference between gravel and gold nuggets is that nuggets are pretty and rare. As a currency becomes over-printed, it begins more and more to resemble gravel and not nuggets.

Back in the late 1950s, I was living in El Paso, TX. We often went on shopping trips into Juarez, Mexico. The shops there were selling many things, some of them quite nice, and all very well priced. The shop keepers called the US dollar "Oro". To them, it really was as good as gold. Compare that to what is going on today. I don't think that anyone is calling the dollar "gold" anymore.

Because that's exactly what they're doing. A cheaper dollr encourages other countries to buy American.

Eat beans.

Capitalism works, however when it is corrupted and manipulated like the way our elected officials have been doing for so long....well, you probably can see what happens.

It's too bad too. Because the generation before the baby boomers was probably the greatest generation of Americans. Since then, we've been a collective failure.

For the first time, http://www.moneyfactory.gov printed more $100 notes than $1 notes.

What can you call an economy where the most commonly used note is a $100?

Not really. It's sorta like art and pornography. I can't define it, but I know what it is when I see it.

Take your pick: http://www.onelook.com/?w=hyperinflation&ls=a

One definition is over 50% a month. The easiest way is to simply define it yourself for the purposes of what inflation is being examined. For example, isn't 49% a month hyperinflation?

I would think that a hyperinflation is one where society breaks down because a substantial amount of productive time is wasted calculating price changes instead of producing, shipping, etc, product. Like HI Germany, where instead of weekly paychecks, wives would get their husbands' daily pay at noon, so they could spend it before it lost most of its value by evening.

Another factor would be the concept that the inflation is out of the government's control, essentially having taken on a life of its own. Sort of like the difference between a campfire and a forest fire.

If the U.S. dollar decreases in value much more, the Australian economy will also come under pressure. Why?

Because the majority of Australia's export mineral contracts are written in U.S. dollars, not Australian ones. The effects of this are beginning to be expressed in the value of Australian public companies on the Australian Stock market, where stock prices are just beginning to come into downwards pressure on stock prices.

That affects most Australians, because their superannuation assets are mostly held in shares held by their superannuation Funds. We also now need the U.S. dollar to at least stabilise. I hope that happens soon, when round 2 of QE finishes, due in July.

Increasingly, Australian businesses are writing overseas trading contracts in other than U.S. dollars. I guess that U.S. businesses are quite free to do the same.

The US manufactures a lot of high tech equipment and quite a bit of that is exported. When I retired in 2004, the US chemical industry was the #2 exporter in dollar terms after agriculture. Not sure if that is still the case, though. Low tech stuff tends to be made where labor is cheap and then exported to 2nd and 1st world economies. Textiles are a great example. Used to be a large textile industry in the US but it has virtually all gone to Latin America, Egypt, and Asia.